Recently, the top international medical journal New England Journal of Medicine ( NEJM ) published online the results of a landmark clinical study led by the team of Professors Zhang Hong and Lü Jicheng from the Department of Nephrology at Peking University First Hospital (PKUFH) and conducted in collaboration with 72 research centers across the country. This study reports the interim results of the TELIGAN trial—a domestic multicenter, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical trial of the Chinese-developed drug “Telitacicept” for the treatment of IgA nephropathy—and proposes a breakthrough new pharmacological treatment regimen for progressive IgA nephropathy. Professor Lü Jicheng of the Department of Nephrology is the first author of the paper, Professor Liu Lijun is the co-first author, and Professor Zhang Hong is the last corresponding author.

This breakthrough was announced simultaneously with the results of concurrent trials for Sibeprenlimab from the United States and Atacicept from Europe, with Telitacicept demonstrating the best efficacy among the three drugs. This achievement signifies that China has not only achieved “parallel running with the international community” in the research and development of new drugs for IgA nephropathy and clinical studies, but has also reached the “best-in-class” level in terms of efficacy. It marks China’s entry into the international leading ranks in the research and development of new drugs for and the treatment of IgA nephropathy.

In recent years, PKUFH has maintained a leading position in the treatment of IgA nephropathy worldwide. To date, the team has published a number of high-impact research findings in three top-tier international journals, including The Lancet (1 paper), JAMA (2 papers), NEJM (1 paper). They’ve also led the formulation of the “Clinical Practice Guidelines for Adult IgA Nephropathy and IgA Vasculitis in China”, providing a “China’s solution” to advance global clinical diagnosis and treatment standards for IgA nephropathy.

Group photo of the research team

Written by: Lang Lang

Edited by: Liu Xin

Source: PKUFH