Amgen's development partner and commercialization collaborator, Beta Pharma, announced on its WeChat platform on Friday that Amgen's lung cancer drug tarlatamab has been approved by China's National Medical Products Administration.

The drug is a targeted immunotherapy indicated for adult patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer whose disease has progressed after chemotherapy.

The U.S. pharmaceutical company markets tarlatamab under the brand name Imdelltra in its home market. The therapy belongs to Amgen's portfolio of bispecific antibody drugs. Its mechanism of action involves simultaneously binding to cancer cells and immune cells, enabling the body's immune system to attack and kill the cancer cells.

Neither Amgen nor Hong Kong-listed Beta Pharma responded to requests for comment regarding the drug's launch timeline or pricing in the Chinese market.

Some Wall Street analysts have indicated that tarlatamab has the potential to generate over $2 billion in annual sales revenue for Amgen.