At the end of 2022, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), in conjunction with the National Cancer Center, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College raised for the first time the important issue of clinical research globally: whether the source of the death time of clinical trials based on the simple follow-up records is credible, and proposed a consensus document on the source of the death time of clinical trials. The results were published in The Lancet Regional Health-Western Pacific, which attracted wide attention and recognition from the international industry. This is the first time that the China consensus on quality standards for clinical research has been ahead of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other international colleagues. The NMPA has been leading China in promoting the scientific development of clinical research, so as to constantly establish and improve the scientific regulatory system and ecological system, and promote China's full integration into the global pharmaceutical research and development system. China clinical research institutions and the whole industry are also gradually from standardized development to scientific development, high-quality development process. In this study, we summarized the scientific and subject-oriented development of China clinical research industry in recent years, and continuously strengthened the international competitiveness of China pharmaceutical industry. It is suggested that scientific thinking model should be used to deal with the normative problems in clinical research and promote the development of medical model to scientific model.
Objective To summarize the progress and trend on clinical drug trials of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in China. Methods Based on the clinical drug trial registration and information disclosure platform and the drug data query system of the National Medical Products Administration, the characteristics of clinical trials, investigational drugs and listed drugs of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in China from 2012 to 2021 were analyzed. Results From 2012 to 2021, a total of 49 clinical drug trials of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were registered in China, accounting for 1.6% of all clinical trials of anticancer drugs. Among them, there were 39 (79.6%) trials initiated by domestic pharmaceutical enterprises, 6 (12.2%) for adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment, and 9 (18.4%) for local treatment. There were differences in the treatment line distribution between global and domestic enterprise-initiated trials (P=0.032). The above trials covered 29 investigational drugs, including 23 (79.3%) targeted drugs, most of which targeted programmed death-1, programmed death-ligand 1 and epidermal growth factor receptor. From 2012 to 2021, there were 2 drugs for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma listed in China, both of which were approved for the first-line and second- line treatment. Conclusion Great achievements have been made in the clinical development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma drugs in China. It is suggested that domestic enterprises increase the investment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, pay attention to adjuvant and local treatment, explore novel targets and drug categories, and focus on the details of pivotal trials.