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 The National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said in a
statement on Monday that an 119 medicines would be added to the
National Reimbursement Drugs List (NRDL) with an average price
reduction of 50.64%.
Ninety-six of them are branded drugs with no generic versions
available in the domestic market, according to the statement.
They included some key products made by foreign pharmaceutical
companies, such as Novartis' blockbuster inflammation drug Cosentyx,
and Israeli firm Teva Pharmaceutical's Austedo treatment for
Huntington's disease.
The list also add more home-grown PD-1 inhibitor products, a
fast-growing class of drugs that help the immune system attack
cancer by blocking a mechanism tumours use to evade detection.
PD-1 drugs from Shanghai Junshi Biosciences, Beigene Ltd and Jiangsu
Hengrui Medicine have been added, compared with only one Chinese
product in earlier round of drug list update.
"It's a healthy thing not to have a winner take all approach and
show there is room for multiple companies," said Brad Loncar, whose
Loncar Investments runs a ETF for Chinese drug firms.
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 "There would be great pressure
for PD-1 drugs that have not made it to the
market, as prices for state medical insurance
has set ceiling for future prices," said ICBC
International Research analyst Zhang Jialin.
No PD-1 products from multinational drugmakers were included.
The new drug list will be effective from March 2021, NHSA said.
Inclusion on the list could potentially boost demand for medicines,
as patients could be reimbursed for a significant portion of the
costs.
The NHSA updates its list annually. Average sales of medicines added
last time jumped by nearly 2,000% during a nine-month period of
2020, according to a research by ICBC International Research
analysts.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore and Louise Heavens)
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