Development of vaccines usually takes years, but drug makers whittled the process down to a matter of months amid a concerted response to a global health threat.

Already priced domestically at a deep discount to counterpart PD-1s in the US, Beigene's tislelizumab could potentially get the first global approval for a China-originated drug in this class, as the immuno-oncology sector as a whole continues to come under pressure in China.

As a part of real-world evidence, patient-reported outcomes can serve to evaluate a drug's efficacy against primary or secondary endpoints and also reflect safety and quality of life, notes a just-released draft regulation from China’s Center for Drug Evaluation.