Yikaida (Axi-cel) Marks Five Years: The Milestone Road of CAR-T Therapy in China

In June 2026, Yikaida (axicabtagene ciloleucel, Axi-cel) — the first CAR-T cell therapy drug of Fosun Kairos, the cell therapy platform of Fosun Pharma — marked the fifth anniversary of its market approval. On June 22, 2021, Yikaida was approved in China, officially opening "Year One" of CAR-T therapy in the country and achieving the cell therapy field's breakthrough from zero to one.

From Zero to One: China's First CAR-T

As China's first CAR-T cell therapy product, Yikaida has since delivered verifiable real-world efficacy and stable drug quality, achieving coordinated breakthroughs across clinical value, treatment network coverage and indication expansion.

Clinical Value, Validated in the Real World

Yikaida has now been used to treat more than 1,500 patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoma nationwide. China's very first CAR-T patient, Ms. Qin, has remained in complete remission with no evidence of cancer for more than eight years after treatment.

In June 2023, Yikaida's second indication was approved: adult patients with large B-cell lymphoma who are refractory to first-line immunochemotherapy or relapse within 12 months of it — further extending the therapy's reach to patients who previously had few options.

A Treatment Network Covering the Whole Country

Fosun Kairos has established more than 200 certified Yikaida treatment centers of care across 29 provinces (regions and municipalities) in China, allowing patients to access high-quality CAR-T therapy close to home — a major step forward in treatment accessibility and convenience.

Pipeline: A Third Indication in Breakthrough Development

Yikaida's third indication — relapsed or refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (r/r iNHL) — is currently in bridging clinical trials in China and has been admitted to the Breakthrough Therapy Drug program of the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) under the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).

"The growth of Yikaida is a vivid practice of Fosun Pharma's brand philosophy of 'continuous innovation for health', and a concrete realization of our mission to bring health to every family. As the core platform of Fosun Pharma's cell therapy business and a leading enterprise in China's cell therapy field, Fosun Kairos will continue to embed social responsibility into corporate strategy and operations, and keep improving access to high-quality innovative medicines."
— Zhang Wenjie, Co-President of Fosun Pharma and Chairman of Fosun Kairos

From the first treated patient to a nationwide network of 200+ treatment centers, and from innovative outcomes-based payment models to inclusion in the national commercial insurance drug catalog — Fosun Kairos has spent five years putting patients at the center, so that every treatment carries the weight of a life renewed.

Looking Ahead: Beyond Hematologic Cancers

Building on its leadership in hematologic malignancies, Fosun Kairos is expanding into solid tumors, autoimmune diseases and frontier technology platforms — advancing in-vivo CAR-T and CAR-NK pipelines — with the goal of becoming a most-valued leader in cell and gene therapy and bringing Chinese innovation to more lives worldwide.

Part of the Fosun Health Global Network

Fosun Kairos and Foshan Chancheng Hospital belong to the same Fosun healthcare ecosystem. As the group's cell therapy portfolio matures from first approval to five years of real-world delivery, Foshan Chancheng Hospital continues to serve as the ecosystem's international care gateway in southern China — through its 20,000 m² Foshan International Medical Center (FIMC), global referral channels and end-to-end services for patients from more than 100 countries.

Together, these advances reflect one direction: connecting patients worldwide with China's medical excellence — and connecting China's medical innovation with the world.