Most Western scientists have given up on the once much-heralded cancer drug endostatin. But in China, biochemist Yongzhang Luo has revived a cheaper, more effective version of the drug.

Judah Folkman found himself in that position as his two big antiangiogenesis drugs, endostatin and angiostatin, finally headed toward clinical trials near the end of 1999. Folkman was expected to ...