A third patient dies in China's opaque trial system

A third patient has now died in China's fast, loosely supervised trial system. Endpoints News reported Thursday that RiboX, a biotech company, confirmed the death. It happened in an unregulated trial of the company's CAR-T cancer therapy. These trials let hospitals test new treatments without national regulator sign-off. It's the third such death disclosed in just the last few weeks.

The other two deaths involve gene-editing therapies, not cancer treatment, but the pattern matches. A 6-year-old girl died in a Shanghai gene-editing trial back in March 2025. Her death wasn't made public until an outside investigation surfaced it, more than a year later. A young boy died in a similar trial from a different company. That death was disclosed only after reporters started asking questions. China has since tightened its rules, restricting these trials to top hospitals with completed safety reviews. Critics say tighter rules don't fix the real problem. Hospitals and companies still decide for themselves what to disclose, and when.

Keep reading — what to watch

Will more of these deaths surface as scrutiny increases? Investigators and reporters are actively digging through this system now, which means more undisclosed cases could still come out. For patients enrolling in trials outside China's traditional regulatory path, that's a reason for real caution, not just academic interest.