Photographer: Mikael Sjoberg / Bloomberg
Photographer: Mikael Sjoberg / Bloomberg
Drug manufacturers in AstraZeneca Plc and GlaxoSmithKline Plc to BeiGene Ltd. has agreed to cut prices on some of China’s newest innovative medicines by an average of 50.6% to be covered by the country’s national insurance fund.
A total of 119 new therapies – treating everything from lung disease and diabetes to cancer and lupus – have been added for coverage by the state-run health safety network after extensive negotiations, National Health The security administration said in a notice posted on its page website Monday.
The average price reduction is 10 percentage points lower than last year, a relief for both domestic and foreign producers, who saw their profits eroded by the Beijing effort to reduce healthcare costs. Companies are eager to include their treatments on the list even at large discounts to gain access to China’s second-largest pharmaceutical market.
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Chinese patients should pay only a small part of the cost of these drugs out of their own pockets, as most of the bill will be borne by China’s 2.44 billion yuan ($ 373 billion) national health insurance fund. , which covers more than 95% of the country’s 1.4 billion people. The list has been updated annually with new entries since 2017, when Beijing accelerated its campaign to bring the best drugs to its growing middle class as quickly and cheaply as possible.
In total, Chinese patients can now benefit from state insurance to pay for 2,800 medicines. Beijing has also managed to cut prices by more than 40% on average for 14 drugs with annual sales in excess of 1 billion yuan each. The new version of the medical reimbursement list will take effect on March 1.
The drugs that made it to the last list include AstraZeneca Zoladex cancer therapy. Brukinsa, the first cancer drug in China to ever receive US Food and Drug Administration approval, developed by Beijing-based BeiGene, also made the list.
Glaxo Benlysta and Volibris, which treat lupus and hypertension in the lungs, respectively, made the list. Other cutting-edge therapies of the multinational line have been a drug against diabetes Novo Nordisk S / A, a medicine for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease developed by Astra and a therapy for ulcerative colitis by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.
The latest inclusions include popular therapies against immune cancer, known as PD-1 inhibitors, cancer treatments that use the body’s immune system to fight tumors – a priority for Beijing, given that China has about 4 million of new cancer patients annually. Such treatments included those developed by Chinese companies BeiGene, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. and Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.
The list also highlights treatments for Covid-19, such as the antiviral ribavirin and arbidol, although China has largely contained eruptions after the outbreak in Wuhan a year ago was brought under control.
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It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. National Health The Security Administration has in the past reached agreements with some drug manufacturers to retain the details of price reductions.
For foreign drug manufacturers, competition from China has made significant sacrifices. New drugs are often brought to market in China at lower prices than those sold in the West, but they still face competition from a growing legion of Chinese biotechnology companies that develop similar drugs that can be sold more cheap.
Older medicines from pharmaceutical companies worldwide, which have not been patented, are also facing price reductions. In a separate national campaign in which Chinese public hospitals buy generic drugs in bulk, prices fell by up to 90%.
– With the assistance of John Liu, Claire Che and Dong Lyu