Curated By Zoie Yung, The Programme Unfolds Through Installation, Moving-Image, Performance, And On-Site Dialogues

Hong Kong Artist Kaitlyn Hau To Debut Large-Scale Commissioned Installation Exploring The Intersections Of Art, Technology, And Embodied Experience

Central Stage Spotlight To Honour Three Globally Acclaimed Artists—
Arahmaiani, Esther Mahlangu, And Arno Rafael Minkkinen

HONG KONG, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Art Central, together with Lead Partner UOB, announce today details of its creative programme ahead of the Fair’s eleventh edition. Curated by Zoie Yung, the programme examines the frictions and intimacies that shape contemporary social and virtual life, foregrounding emergent Asian voices alongside influential practitioners shaping the region’s cultural landscape. A cornerstone of Hong Kong Art Month, Art Central 2026 will be held from 25 to 29 March, with a VIP Preview on 24 March, at its iconic Central Harbourfront location. Art Central 2026 is financially supported by the Mega Arts and Cultural Event Fund under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Kaitlyn Hau will present the Art Central 2026 Hong Kong Commission, Recursive Feedback Ritual 0.01 (2026), a large-scale installation and motion‑capture performance.
• The Fair’s Video Art programme, ‘Reading the Room’, features a focused selection of regional and international moving-image works that trace the tensions between human intuition and algorithmic reasoning, exploring how AI and other emerging technologies have reframed the emotional signals intrinsic to our communication.
• ‘Endless Night and Midnight Sun’ features four commissioned performances that examine how the compressed temporalities of contemporary life manifest through metamorphic bodies, behaviours, and social relations.
• Central Stage introduces its final featured artists — Arahmaiani, Esther Mahlangu, and Arno Rafael Minkkinen — rounding out a group of six artists at the Fair whose influential practices command growing international and institutional recognition.
• The 2026 Talks Programme convenes practitioners working at the intersections of contemporary art and technology, spanning from conversations on music videos as a medium for radical experimentation to the development of local art‑tech and new media practices.

HONG KONG ARTIST COMMISSION
Art Central has commissioned new media artist Kaitlyn Hau (b. 1999, Hong Kong) to realise a large‑scale installation for the Fair’s 2026 edition. Titled Recursive Feedback Ritual 0.01 (2026), the commission extends Hau’s ongoing inquiry into the emotional, perceptual, and technological dimensions of digital embodiment. As an artistic director and visual engineer for virtual-singer performance, Hau has developed a distinctive methodology of “selective inclusion”, using micro‑gestures such as subtle shifts of breath, posture, and movement to heighten the affective presence of her digital personas.

Unfolding as an expansive installation, Recursive Feedback Ritual 0.01 transforms Hau’s compulsive self‑regulation into a real‑time computational sculpture. Motion‑capture-driven visuals loop through a recursive feedback system, rendering the artist’s psychiatric symptoms as measurable cycles of repetition and dissociation. The work reclaims bodily agency within a curated aesthetic structure—transforming autonomous internal “invaders” into a generative vocabulary of movement and image.

PERFORMANCE
Presented daily in the Fair’s Central Theatre, the performance programme ‘Endless Night and Midnight Sun’ turns to the altered temporalities of the AI era, drawing on the extreme cycles of light and darkness in polar regions as a metaphor for our shifting sense of duration. Through a series of commissioned works, the programme reflects on how compressed time reshapes social instinct, emotional endurance, and the rhythms through which we move together in contemporary life.

• Jiaming Liao (b. 1992, Guangdong) presents IYKYK (ON AIR) (2026). Appearing in his signature muscle suit, Liao stages a hybrid virtual‑physical performance realised by motion‑tracking animation, where audiences are invited to “transform” his body through interactive participation. Blurring the line between artistic consumption and creation, the work foregrounds how beauty and masculinity are culturally constructed amid intensified commercialisation and technological mediation. 
• Chaklam Ng (b. 1984, Hong Kong) presents Shadow Work (2026), a sound performance that fuses physical gesture with object manipulation and electronic modulation. Through percussive activation, the installation generates a feedback loop of multi‑choral electronic responses, staging an ephemeral dialogue between the body and its digital echo.
• Isabella Isabella (b. 1986, Hong Kong) presents I see blood in the sky today. (2026). The work explores the concept of “teleproximality,” imagining the child as an external limb and their absence as a hollowed imprint within the parent’s body. Moving through a series of textural suits, the artist stages a body in transition, each shift articulating new configurations of intimacy and care.
• Susie Au (b. 1962, Hong Kong) presents Memory In Motion – Walk-In-Cinema (2026), transforming the Fair’s Central Theatre into a surreal corridor of memory constructed from cardboard boxes. As audiences navigate the space alongside performers, they encounter looping projections drawn from Au’s music video archive and daily visual notes, allowing latent recollections to be reassembled into new sensory narratives.

VIDEO ART
Championing the breadth of contemporary moving‑image practices from the region and beyond, the Fair’s 2026 programme of Video Art, ‘Reading the Room’, turns toward the subtleties of human interaction and the labour of meaning-making. Observing how artificial intelligence routinely processes vast datasets yet struggles to apprehend nuance, subtext, and tone, the programme reframes this technological shortfall as an analogue for the misalignments inherent in everyday communication, foregrounding the tensions, hesitations, and emotional undercurrents that contour our attempts to understand one another. 

Highlights include:

• Liang‑Jung Chen (b. Taipei) presents UK Indefinite Leave to Remain Application Fee (2025). This screen‑recording of a YouTube performance adopts the format of a live fundraising campaign, transforming a colour‑coded Google Sheet into a site of resilience that documents the artist’s efforts to secure the legal fees required for a UK permanent residency application. Chen renders private financial struggle as public data, illuminating the structural pressures that shape migrant experience.
• Yifan Jiang (b. 1994, Tianjin) presents One Sunday Morning (2021). Jiang hand-draws magical-realist fables that probe the limits of communication and human connection. The animated video work imagines a parallel universe in which humanity abruptly loses language. Through the encounter of two characters from opposite sides of the world, Jiang examines empathy, estrangement, and how understanding is formed.
• Jon Rafman (b. 1981, Montreal) presents Cloudy Heart – Strawberry Moon (2025). Operating at the intersection of video art and digital subcultures, Rafman’s work centres on an AI‑generated bedroom-pop star whose ‘e-girl’ persona unfolds across social media feeds, music, and algorithmic aesthetics. The project probes the uncanny space where artificial consciousness acquires human messiness, reflecting on desire and loneliness born of life online.
• Adrian Wong (b. 1980, Chicago) presents With Love from Hong Kong (Episode 1) (2025) and With Hate from Hong Kong (2025), a two‑part inquiry where personal narrative meets the pulp conventions of Western and Eastern screen cultures. With Love draws on Wong’s grandmother’s fascination with American soap operas to stage scripted vignettes of her migrant life; With Hate reactivates the rapid‑assembly production tactics of 1960s kung fu studios, sutured with newly choreographed stunt sequences. Together, the works invert familiar narrative tropes, centring female protagonists endowed with agency and exaggerated physical prowess.

TALKS
Art Central’s Talks Programme brings together some of the most engaging voices in contemporary art today for a series of thought‑provoking conversations. Presented throughout the week, the programme offers visitors distinct opportunities to hear directly from artists, curators, and industry leaders.

Highlights include:

• ‘MV as an Art Form’, in conversation with Susie Au (film/MV director) and Halftalk (MV director). Renowned for their work with prominent Cantopop artists, the duo discusses the narrative and artistic strategies that shape their music‑video direction and the medium’s evolution as a site for radical experimentation amid accelerating technological change.
• ‘Anchor Point—Art Central 2026 Hong Kong Artist Commission’, in conversation with Kaitlyn Hau (artist), Inti Guerrero (curator/educator), and Ashley Lee Wong (Co-Founder and Artistic Director, MetaObjects). Taking motion tracking as both a technical anchor and a metaphor for how Hong Kong artists negotiate their positionality within global contexts, the trio discusses Hau’s generative practice, her ACG (Anime, Comic, and Games) influences, and her translation of “exhaustion” into an aesthetic form central to her practice.
• ‘Art Tech—Rethinking the Contemporary Art Ecology’, in conversation with media artists Samuel Yip, Keith Lam, and Ng Tsz-Kwan. The speakers will reflect on their role in shaping the local art tech landscape and examine the infrastructural conditions required to sustain its continued development. 

Zoie Yung, Curator, said, “This year’s creative programme reflects the criticality and nuance of the questions artists are asking in this present moment—how we communicate across misalignment, how technology reshapes embodiment, and how shifting temporalities recalibrate our social instincts. With a focused, multi-disciplinary framework, we aim to bring forward practices that speak directly to the material and perceptual conditions of Hong Kong and Asia today.”

CENTRAL STAGE
Art Central announces presentations by Arahmaiani, Esther Mahlangu, and Arno Rafael Minkkinen as part of its Central Stage feature, joining the previously announced SIDE CORE, Elnaz Javani, and Marta Frėjutė. Central Stage spotlights six artists whose practices have garnered recent institutional recognition, including participation in major international exhibitions and recurring large‑scale shows, as well as significant public commissions, acquisitions and awards. Presented under the curatorial direction of Enoch Cheng, Central Stage is among the Fair’s curated gallery features.

• Yogyakarta-based artist Arahmaiani is a seminal figure in Indonesian contemporary art. Since the 1980s, her practice has grappled with contemporary politics, gendered power inequalities, and cultural commodification through performance, installation, and community‑based collaboration. Arahmaiani has exhibited widely at major institutions and biennials, including Tate Modern (London), the Brooklyn Museum (New York), the National Gallery Singapore, the Istanbul Biennial, the Gwangju Biennale, and documenta fifteen (Kassel).
• Born and based in Mpumalanga, South Africa, Esther Mahlangu is celebrated for her bold geometric abstractions rooted in Ndebele cultural knowledge. Painting across an expansive range of surfaces, her practice reanimates ancestral visual systems within contemporary art and design. Dr. Mahlangu has exhibited internationally at major institutions, including the British Museum (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
• Born in Helsinki and based in Massachusetts, Arno Rafael Minkkinen is known for black‑and‑white self‑portraits that investigate the relationship between the human body and the natural world. His images draw on intuition, chance, and physical risk as integral elements of his process. In 2025, Minkkinen was named the recipient of the Académie des Beaux-Arts Photography Award, William Klein. His work has entered the permanent collections of MoMA (New York), the National Gallery of Finland (Helsinki), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Corey Andrew Barr, Fair Director, said, “Art Central has established itself as a discursive platform where experimental voices from Hong Kong and across Asia gain meaningful visibility and resonance. This year’s creative programme spotlights practitioners advancing new conceptual and technological frontiers, inviting audiences to engage with the emergent vocabularies shaping contemporary new‑media practice. It is our privilege to support work that not only reflects the region’s cultural vitality but also contributes to its ongoing transformation.”

Advance Tickets end 24 March, 11:59 PM HKT. Visitors are encouraged to book online in advance at artcentralhongkong.com/tickets/

Opening Dates and Hours

Tuesday 24 March
VIP Preview (by invitation)
Wednesday 25 March
Fair Hours                        12 pm – 5 pm
Night Central                    5 pm – 9 pm
Thursday 26 March
Fair Hours                        12 pm – 7 pm
Friday 27 March
Fair Hours                        12 pm – 7 pm
Saturday 28 March
Fair Hours                        11 am – 7 pm
Sunday 29 March
Fair Hours                        11 am – 5 pm

Venue
Central Harbourfront Hong Kong, 9 Lung Wo Road

www.artcentralhongkong.com
Facebook: artcentralhk | Instagram: @artcentralhk |
WeChat Public Platform: artcentral | Xiaohongshu: ArtCentralHK

#ArtCentralHK #ArtCentralUOB #HongKongArtWeek

For media enquiries, please contact:
Chance Communications
[Mandy Chan | mandy@chancecomm.com | 2509 3123]
[Tommy Yuen | tommy@chancecomm.com | 2509 3389]

About Art Central
Art Central, a cornerstone event of Hong Kong Art Month, presents the next generation of talent from Asia’s most forward-thinking galleries alongside celebrated artists from across the globe. Since its inaugural edition in 2015, Art Central has established itself as a leading platform for innovation in contemporary art, advancing the profiles of artists and galleries and reinforcing their presence within the international art landscape. Today, the Fair is recognised for the strength of its curatorial programming and as a vital meeting point for discovery and exchange among collectors and curators representing private, corporate, and institutional collections worldwide.

Fair Director
Corey Andrew Barr joined Art Central as Fair Director in 2019. A champion of Hong Kong artists, Barr has expanded the Fair’s platform to highlight local talent and underscore its position as a benchmark for aspiring galleries from around the world. He was formerly the director of a prominent Hong Kong- and London-based gallery focusing on contemporary Asian art, and prior to that, served as Specialist and Head of Sales for Phillips in New York, where he also organised exhibitions of contemporary art, photography, and design by leading international artists.

Curator
Zoie Yung, currently based in Hong Kong, is an independent exhibition consultant and curator, and former exhibition manager of chi K11 art museum in Shanghai. She provides a unique approach to exhibition production by combining practice in exhibition spatial arrangement and her knowledge of Chinese Xuanxue as well as Western astrology. Selected recent exhibitions include Wonder-verse (chi K11 art space, Hong Kong, 2022) and Curve of Buoyancy (Duddell’s, Hong Kong, 2021). She also actively organises public education campaigns; she has collaborated with local organisations, including Tai Kwun Contemporary, Para Site, 1a Space, and Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre.

Enoch Cheng is an artist-curator whose work spans curation, moving image, installation, performance, dance, and fashion. His cross-disciplinary multimedia practice reinterprets norms, stories, and myths through contemporary lenses, drawing on a range of creative practices and engaging audiences through diverse cultural traditions. Cheng was awarded the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship (2020) and held artist residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2022), and the American Museum of Natural History, New York (2020). He was most recently named Artist of the Year (Visual Arts) at the 2025 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards, recognising his contributions to the arts, including his role at Art Central since 2024.

About UOB
UOB is a leading bank in Asia. Operating through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, UOB has a global network of more than 470 branches and offices in 19 markets in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Since its incorporation in 1935, UOB has grown organically and through a series of strategic acquisitions. Today, UOB is rated among the world’s top banks: Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA- by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

For nine decades, UOB has adopted a customer-centric approach to create long-term value by staying relevant through its enterprising spirit and doing right by its customers. UOB is focused on building the future of ASEAN – for the people and businesses within, and connecting with, ASEAN.

The Bank connects businesses to opportunities in the region with its unparalleled regional footprint and leverages data and insights to innovate and create personalised banking experiences and solutions catering to each customer’s unique needs and evolving preferences. UOB is also committed to helping businesses forge a sustainable future, by fostering social inclusiveness, creating positive environmental impact and pursuing economic progress. UOB believes in being a responsible financial services provider and is steadfast in its support of art, social development of children and education, doing right by its communities and stakeholders.

About Mega Arts and Cultural Events (ACE) Fund
The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government sets up the Mega ACE Fund to attract and support international or large-scale arts and cultural events which bring significant arts, cultural or economic values and can be recurrent and anchored in Hong Kong, or events which can bring exceptionally significant arts or cultural merit, as well as publicity and image building values to Hong Kong as an arts and cultural hub with a view to contributing to Hong Kong’s development into an arts and cultural metropolis as well as a tourist destination, providing development opportunities for the arts, cultural and creative sectors, and facilitating arts and cultural exchange.

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Australia’s boldest summer yet features the first-of-its-kind South Pacific island experience, plus more short getaways and longer holidays on Anthem and Voyager of the Seas starting October 2027

SYDNEY, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Royal Caribbean is unveiling its most exciting Australian summer yet with all-in holiday adventures and the debut of Royal Beach Club Lelepa*, the Southern Hemisphere’s first Royal Caribbean exclusive cruise destination for a holiday like no other. From October 2027 to April 2028, travellers can look forward to more short getaways, weekend departures and ways to bask in island time on Anthem of the Seas from Sydney and Voyager of the Seas from Brisbane, delivering 2- to 12-night holidays across Australia, the sun-soaked South Pacific – including the ultimate beach day at the all-new Royal Beach Club Lelepa – and breathtaking New Zealand. The new lineup of 2027-28 holidays on two of the boldest ships at sea are now available to book on Royal Caribbean’s website.

Opening in 2027, Royal Beach Club Lelepa will debut Royal Caribbean’s first exclusive cruise destination in the South Pacific, delivering the ultimate beach day for guests sailing from Australia. Travelers can unwind on two pristine beaches, take on adventure with a nature trail, snorkeling and kayaking, and enjoy locally inspired cuisine with 10 bars and all-inclusive island eats.

“As the most trusted holiday partner in Australia, Royal Caribbean continues to raise the bar on the ultimate family holiday with Royal Beach Club Lelepa – a first-of-its-kind destination in the Southern Hemisphere inspired by the natural beauty and spirit of the South Pacific region,” said Gavin Smith, vice president and managing director, Australia and New Zealand, Royal Caribbean. “We know Australian families love holidaying in the South Pacific, and Lelepa takes that to an entirely new level with an experience they won’t find anywhere else in the world. With an expanded lineup of weekend sailings, short escapes and longer ways to holiday, we’re giving travellers even more reasons to explore fan-favourite destinations across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.”

The ultimate island time is in store at Royal Beach Club Lelepa – a first-of-its-kind destination located on the island nation of Vanuatu in the Southern Hemisphere, included on every South Pacific getaway from Sydney and Brisbane starting October 2027. Guests can enjoy two pristine beaches, including a serene adults-only retreat and an activity-packed family beach where friendly competitions invite travellers to become the island’s champion. Whether it’s unwinding on sun-soaked shores, hiking a scenic nature trail or snorkeling in crystal-clear waters, Lelepa offers something for every kind of holidaymaker. From 10 bars and unlimited island eats to umbrellas, loungers and towels all included, guests can enjoy the perfect day in untouched paradise.

Australian Summer 2027-2028 Highlights:

Anthem of the Seas – From Sydney, Australia

• Across 24 headline-making getaways ranging from three to 17 nights, the Quantum Class favourite is providing more ways to celebrate the weekend with 3-night escapes and South Pacific holidays, including visits to Royal Beach Club Lelepa for guests to bask in spectacular island beauty.
• 9- to 12-night New Zealand holidays take holidaymakers to far-flung destinations, including Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Milford Sound, for families looking to experience landscapes, culture and cuisine that deliver on the wow factor in one seamless getaway.
• Adding to the adventures are ways to ring in the festivities with a 9-night South Pacific Christmas holiday – featuring Christmas Day at Royal Beach Club Lelepa – and a New Zealand New Year getaway that welcomes 2028 in the beauty of the Sounds, turning the most wonderful time of year into a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.
• The spectacle of the season is a 17-night Transpacific adventure departing from Honolulu. Swapping the long-haul flight for a Pacific crossing, travellers can journey across the world’s largest ocean before arriving in Australia in bold, unforgettable style.

Voyager of the Seas – From Brisbane, Australia

• Bringing the heat to the Sunshine State from October 2027, Voyager will deliver 29 sun-soaked holidays ranging from two to 25 nights, turning Queensland into the launchpad for memory-maxing adventures and more weekends for families and friends to experience the ultimate getaway.
• Starting at the beginning of the Queensland summer holidays, travellers can go from Brisbane to beyond beautiful 7-night South Pacific adventures visiting the brand-new Royal Beach Club Lelepa, along with Noumea, Lifou, Mystery Island, Port Vila and Luganville, including Christmas and New Year escapes.
• Closer to home, 4-night Whitsundays getaways to Airlie Beach, alongside six vibrant short escapes, put bragworthy beach days in Queensland’s own backyard.
• For those ready to go bigger, a spectacular 25-night Transpacific adventure departing Seattle calls French Polynesia and Hawaii before arriving in Brisbane.

With two iconic ships owning the lineup, the 2027-28 season brings bold adventures to maximise every moment at sea. Thrill-seekers can reach new heights on the RipCord by iFly skydiving simulator, master the waves on the FlowRider surf simulator, enjoy sweeping 360-degree ocean views from the North Star observation capsule, and have a friendly face off in the glow-in-the-dark Battle for Planet Z laser tag clash. When it’s time to refuel, holidaymakers can discover flavours from around the world, including fresh sashimi at Izumi, premium steaks at Chops Grille, and rustic Italian classics at Giovanni’s Table. World-class entertainment is the star of the show on both ships as Anthem hits the high notes with the Olivier Award-winning phenomenon “We Will Rock You,” while Voyager dazzles with the ice-skating spectacular “Ice Odyssey,” where professional skaters bring the magic and mystery of tarot cards to the rink.

More details on the 2027-28 holidays are available on Royal Caribbean’s website.

About Royal Caribbean  
Royal Caribbean, part of Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL), has delivered memorable vacations for more than 50 years. The cruise line’s game-changing ships and exclusive destinations revolutionize vacations with industry-leading innovations and an all-encompassing combination of experiences, from thrills and ways to chill, to dining and entertainment, for every type of family and vacationer. Voted “Best Cruise Line Overall” for 23 consecutive years in the Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards, Royal Caribbean makes memories with adventurers across more than 300 destinations in 80 countries on all seven continents, including the vacation brand’s Perfect Day at CocoCay and Royal Beach Club Paradise Island in The Bahamas, plus four new signature destinations joining the growing lineup by 2027.  

Media can stay up to date by following @RoyalCaribPR on X and visit www.RoyalCaribbeanPressCenter.com. For additional information or to book, vacationers can visit www.RoyalCaribbean.com, call (800) ROYAL-CARIBBEAN or contact their travel advisor. 

Opening in 2027, Royal Beach Club Lelepa will debut Royal Caribbean’s first exclusive cruise destination in the South Pacific, delivering the ultimate beach day for guests sailing from Australia. Travelers can unwind on two pristine beaches, take on adventure with a nature trail, snorkeling and kayaking, and enjoy locally inspired cuisine with 10 bars and all-inclusive island eats.

Anthem of the Seas offers a lineup of thrilling experiences. From the RipCord by iFly sky diving experience to the North Star glass observation capsule that takes vacationers more than 300 feet above the ocean, to robust culinary and drink experiences, there are adventures for guests of all ages.

Source

CHENGDU, China, March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 2026 European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from March 25 to 28, 2026 (local time). At this congress, the final OS analysis from the pivotal study (OptiTROP-Lung03) of sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT, also known as SKB264/MK-2870) (佳泰莱^®), a TROP2 ADC developed by Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Kelun-Biotech” or the “Company”, 6990.HK), has been selected as a Late-Breaking Abstract (LBA) (Presentation Number: LBA4). Professor Yunpeng Yang from the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center will present the findings to the global research community during a Mini Oral Session. The abstract was published on the ESMO Open.

The OptiTROP-Lung03 study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of sac-TMT monotherapy (5 mg/kg every other week) versus docetaxel for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutant NSCLC who have previously treated  with an EGFR-TKI and platinum-based chemotherapy. Previously reported results presented at the ASCO 2025 meeting in 137 randomized participants demonstrated that sac-TMT achieved statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared to docetaxel——the hazard ratio (HR) for BICR-assessed PFS was 0.30 (95% CI: 0.20–0.46, one-sided p<0.001) and HR for OS was 0.49 (95% CI: 0.27–0.88, one-sided p=0.007)^[1]. Based on these positive results, sac-TMT received approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for this indication, which has also been included in China’s National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL).

At the 2026 ELCC, the final OS analysis, along with updated PFS and additional data from the OptiTROP-Lung03 study will be presented. As of December 11, 2025, the median follow-up was 23.8 months. Key highlights are as follows:

• In the docetaxel control group, 41.3% of patients crossed over to receive sac-TMT after disease progression.
• Considering the impact of OS from crossover treatment in the control group, adjusted and analysed by the pre-specified rank-preserving structural failure time (RPSFT) model, the median OS was 20.0 months in the sac-TMT group vs 11.2 months in the docetaxel group (HR 0.45, 95% CI: 0.28–0.73), with 18-month OS rate of 54.7% vs 9.1%. Without adjustment for subsequent sac-TMT treatment in the control group, median OS was 20.0 months vs 13.5 months (HR 0.63, 95% CI: 0.40–0.98).
• Median PFS assessed by investigators (INV) was 7.9 months vs 2.8 months (HR 0.23, 95% CI: 0.15-0.35).

Notably, based on another study, the OptiTROP-Lung04 study, sac-TMT has been approved by the NMPA for the treatment of advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutant NSCLC after progression on EGFR-TKI therapy, with the findings concurrently published in The New England Journal of Medicine^[2]. In this study among the EGFR-mutant NSCLC population who have progressed after prior EGFR-TKI and platinum-based chemotherapy, sac-TMT demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful increase in overall survival，with a median OS of 20 months. The consistent positive findings from two pivotal registrational studies further reinforce sac-TMT’s leading position in the treatment landscape for pre-treated EGFR-mutant NSCLC, offering a more definitive and long-term survival benefit option for patients with advanced lung cancer.

About Sac-TMT

Sac-TMT, a core product of the Company, is a novel human TROP2 ADC in which the Company has proprietary intellectual property rights, targeting advanced solid tumors such as NSCLC, breast cancer (BC), gastric cancer (GC), gynecological tumors, among others. Sac-TMT is developed with a novel linker to conjugate the payload, a belotecan-derivative topoisomerase I inhibitor with a drug-to-antibody-ratio (DAR) of 7.4. Sac-TMT specifically recognizes TROP2 on the surface of tumor cells by recombinant anti-TROP2 humanized monoclonal antibodies, which is then endocytosed by tumor cells and releases the payload KL610023 intracellularly. KL610023, as a topoisomerase I inhibitor, induces DNA damage to tumor cells, which in turn leads to cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. In addition, it also releases KL610023 in the tumor microenvironment. Given that KL610023 is membrane permeable, it can enable a bystander effect, or in other words kill adjacent tumor cells.

In May 2022, the Company licensed the exclusive rights to MSD (the tradename of Merck & Co., Inc, Rahway, NJ, USA) to develop, use, manufacture and commercialize sac-TMT in all territories outside of Greater China (which includes Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan).

To date, four indications for sac-TMT have been approved and marketed in China for: EGFR mutant-positive locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC following progression on EGFR-TKI therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy; unresectable locally advanced or metastatic TNBC who have received at least two prior systemic therapies (at least one of them for advanced or metastatic setting); EGFR mutant-positive locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC who progressed after treatment with EGFR-TKI therapy; unresectable or metastatic HR+/HER2- (IHC 0, IHC 1+ or IHC 2+/ISH-) BC who have received prior ET and at least one line of chemotherapy in advanced setting. The first two indications listed above have been included in China’s National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL). This inclusion is expected to bring clinical benefits to a greater number of patients with BC and NSCLC. Additionally, sac-TMT has been granted six Breakthrough Therapy Designations (BTDs) by the NMPA.

Sac-TMT is the world’s first TROP2 ADC drug approved for marketing in lung cancer. As of today, Kelun-Biotech has initiated 9 registrational clinical studies in China. MSD is evaluating 17 ongoing Phase III global clinical studies of sac-TMT as a monotherapy or with pembrolizumab or other anti-cancer agents for several types of cancer. These studies are sponsored and led by MSD.

About Kelun-Biotech

Kelun-Biotech (6990.HK) is a holding subsidiary of Kelun Pharmaceutical, which focuses on the R&D, manufacturing, commercialization and global collaboration of innovative biological drugs and small molecule drugs. Kelun-Biotech focuses on major disease areas such as solid tumors, autoimmune, and metabolic diseases, and in establishing a globalized drug development and industrialization platform to address the unmet medical needs in China and the rest of world. Kelun-Biotech is committed to becoming a leading global enterprise in the field of innovative drugs. At present, Kelun-Biotech has more than 30 ongoing key innovative drug projects, of which 4 projects with 8 indications have been approved for marketing, more than 10 projects are in the clinical stage. Kelun-Biotech has established one of the world’s leading proprietary ADC and novel DC platforms, OptiDC™, and has 2 ADC projects with 5 indications approved for marketing, and multiple ADC and novel DC assets in clinical or preclinical research stage. For more information, please visit https://en.kelun-biotech.com/.

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Amid a surge in Chinese tourism to Kazakhstan with more than 876,000 visits recorded in the first 11 months of 2025, 8B is providing Kazakhstani merchants with the infrastructure needed to convert this traffic into revenue: Weixin Pay acceptance and access to the Weixin/WeChat ecosystem of 1.4 billion users. 

SINGAPORE, March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — 8B, a cross-border QR payment provider focused on emerging markets across Asia, has launched Weixin Pay acceptance for merchants throughout Kazakhstan. The integration allows businesses in tourism, retail, HoReCa, and transportation to accept payments directly from Chinese tourists via Weixin Pay, the payment service used by many Chinese consumers for everyday transactions. 

In the first 11 months of 2025, Chinese tourist arrivals in Kazakhstan exceeded 876,000 visitors, already surpassing the full-year total of 655,000 recorded in 2024. The year 2025 has been officially designated the Year of Chinese Tourism in Kazakhstan, with both countries actively implementing bilateral initiatives to expand travel flows. 

Chinese travelers are also among the highest-spending visitors to the country. The average Chinese tourist spends around $1,000 per trip, with the total contribution to Kazakhstan’s economy in 2025 estimated at $500 million. 

Until now, however, Kazakhstani merchants faced a structural challenge: there was no simple way to enable Weixin Pay, the primary payment tool used by the overwhelming majority of Chinese travelers abroad. 8B addresses this gap. 

What Weixin Pay Integration Means for Merchants 

Weixin Pay is more than just a payment method. It represents the financial layer of the broader Weixin/WeChat ecosystem, which determines how hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers discover, evaluate, and interact with businesses abroad. 

A merchant that accepts Weixin Pay gains more than payment capability – they gain visibility within the Weixin/WeChat ecosystem itself. 

Through integration with 8B, Kazakhstani merchants become eligible to appear in the Weixin Pay Global Gift Pack mini-program, an in-app feature within Weixin/WeChat that recommends partner merchants to Chinese users during their international travels. 

For an airline, tour operator, or retail business, being featured in Global Gift Pack is comparable to receiving a native recommendation inside an app that travelers open dozens of times a day throughout their trip. 

The logic is simple: a Chinese traveler who cannot pay with Weixin Pay will often choose a competitor who offers it. Merchants without Weixin Pay are effectively invisible to a significant share of Kazakhstan’s fastest-growing tourist segment. 

Kazakhstan: The Numbers Behind the Launch 

In 2024, Kazakhstan welcomed 28.6 million international visitors, making it one of the most active tourism markets in Central Asia. Among them, Chinese visitors represent the fastest-growing segment with the highest average spending. The rapid growth in Chinese tourism is not a temporary surge. It reflects the structural recovery of China’s outbound tourism after years of restrictions, combined with Kazakhstan’s targeted efforts to position itself as a key destination for Chinese travelers. 

Direct air connectivity between China and Kazakhstan has expanded significantly, with flights operating to Almaty, Astana, and regional destinations. While infrastructure for hosting Chinese tourists has been developing quickly, the infrastructure needed to capture and convert their spending, particularly payment acceptance, has lagged behind. 8B was built specifically to close this gap. 

First Partners and Market Coverage 

The rollout of Weixin Pay in Kazakhstan begins with the travel and transportation sectors, where the majority of Chinese tourist spending is concentrated. 

At the same time, merchants in education, tourism services, retail, restaurants, and entertainment are being onboarded in Almaty and Astana, the two cities with the largest influx of Chinese visitors. The platform was designed for scale from the outset: any merchant in Kazakhstan can connect Weixin Pay through 8B without the technical or compliance barriers that historically made cross-border acquiring inaccessible for small and medium-sized businesses. In Kazakhstan, this is supported through Zesta LLP, a licensed local payment organization (License No. 02-23-179), ensuring full regulatory compliance for every transaction. 

“Kazakhstan is experiencing a real boom in Chinese tourism, and the merchants who benefit most will be those who allow guests to pay the way they do at home. For Chinese travelers, Weixin Pay is not an alternative payment method – it is part of everyday life. The mission of 8B is to ensure Kazakhstani businesses keep pace with this demand rather than losing it due to payment infrastructure limitations.”  — Bogdan Zadorozhny, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, 8B

“Kazakhstan is exactly the type of market where Weixin Pay creates immediate and measurable value for Chinese travelers. When our users travel abroad, they expect the same seamless payment experience they enjoy at home. Through our partnership with 8B, merchants across tourism, HoReCa, and retail in Kazakhstan can now meet this expectation and position themselves directly in front of millions of Chinese consumers choosing Central Asia as their next destination. We are proud to support Kazakhstan’s rise as a top destination for Chinese tourists.” — Deven Chen, Director, WeChat Pay Business Group for Northeast Asia and Central Asia

Kazakhstani merchants interested in enabling Weixin Pay through 8B can get started at www.8b.world or reach the team directly at dk@8b.world. 

About 8B

8B is a cross-border QR payment provider serving fintech, e-commerce, and travel platforms. The company operates across Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, connecting businesses to local payment rails operated by central banks and leading fintech companies. 

About Weixin Pay 

Weixin Pay is the mobile payment solution integrated within the Weixin/WeChat application and is one of China’s leading mobile payment services. Its mission is to provide users and businesses with secure, convenient, and professional payment experiences. In China, Weixin Pay covers nearly every aspect of daily life, both online and offline. The cross-border Weixin Pay service is available in 78 countries and regions, supports 36 currencies, and covers a wide range of scenarios including restaurants, retail, transportation, tourism attractions, and education payments – helping international merchants effectively serve Chinese consumers. 

Contact

Daria Kashurina, dk@8b.world, +34 698 993 638

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TAIPEI and SAN DIEGO, March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Senhwa Biosciences, Inc. (TPEx: 6492), a clinical stage company focusing on development of first-in-class therapeutics for oncology, rare diseases, and infectious diseases, today announced that its first-in-class investigational drug Pidnarulex (CX-5461) has demonstrated a significant research breakthrough in the field of photodynamic therapy (PDT). The research findings have been selected for presentation at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)—one of the world’s most influential conferences in oncology research—highlighting the innovation of the mechanism and its promising clinical development potential recognized by the international scientific community.

In recent years, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has increasingly emerged as a promising cancer treatment strategy attracting strong interest from the global pharmaceutical industry. Several major pharmaceutical companies—including Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Roche—have actively invested in related research, acquisitions, and collaborations, exploring the integration of next-generation photosensitizers with photo-immunotherapy approaches.

The pre-clinical study shows that CX-5461 possesses photosensitizing properties. When exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, the compound generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to oxidative DNA damage and enhanced cancer cell death through both direct cytotoxicity and immune-mediated mechanisms. Under the same drug concentration conditions, cytotoxicity against cancer cells increased by approximately ten-fold.

Further investigation revealed that CX-5461’s binding to G-quadruplex (G4) DNA structures works synergistically with light-induced ROS generation, significantly enhancing anti-tumor activity and prolonging survival. These findings suggest that, beyond its established anti-cancer mechanisms, CX-5461 also has the potential to be developed as a novel photosensitizer for photodynamic and novel photoimmuno-therapy.

This emerging therapeutic strategy could potentially be applied to superficial tumors, skin cancers, and other localized treatment settings, enabling a cross-indication cancer treatment approach and opening new clinical applications in oncology.

The AACR Annual Meeting serves as a premier global platform for validating groundbreaking science and presenting first-in-class mechanisms of action. Research presented at AACR frequently shapes future directions in biomedical innovation and often facilitates strategic collaborations, licensing agreements, and co-development opportunities with global pharmaceutical companies. Selection of this study for presentation further enhances the global visibility of CX-5461 in the field of innovative cancer therapeutics.

The research will be presented during the “Radiation and Photodynamic Therapy Response Modifiers” clinical research session at the AACR 2026 Annual Meeting. Jason Huang, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Senhwa Biosciences, and Kai‑Wei Hsueh, Ph.D., Associate Director of Clinical Research, will attend the conference and present the findings.

Photodynamic therapy is a medical technology that combines a photosensitizing agent with specific wavelengths of light to activate the compound and generate singlet oxygen or free radicals, selectively destroying diseased cells or tissues. It is widely considered a minimally invasive treatment modality with relatively low systemic toxicity. PDT has already been applied in a range of diseases, including skin cancers, head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, and cervical cancer.

Market research also indicates continued growth in the global photodynamic therapy market. The oncology-focused PDT market was estimated at approximately USD 3.54 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 5.89 billion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 7–8%. With the increasing demand for precision oncology and minimally invasive therapies, photodynamic therapy is emerging as a key area of interest for global pharmaceutical development.

Senhwa Biosciences stated that the newly identified mechanism and application of CX-5461 in photodynamic therapy further demonstrate the compound’s potential as a multi-platform innovative anti-cancer therapeutic. The company will continue advancing related research and clinical development while actively exploring international partnerships and licensing opportunities to accelerate the global development of next-generation cancer treatments.

Source: Senhwa Biosciences, Inc.

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