China Medical News

More than 60 rare-disease drugs have been approved for marketing in China, of which over 40 are included in the national medical insurance system, according to official data. China's national reimbursement list now covers medications for 25 rare diseases, according to figures released at a national conference on rare diseases held in Beijing on Saturday.
Seven rare-disease drugs have been added to the list in 2021, bringing their price down by about 65% on average, Li Tao, an official with the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA), said at the conference. Official data shows that there are about 20 million rare-disease patients in China, with more than 200,000 new patients added every year.
According to Chen Shifei, deputy head of the National Medical Products Administration, drugs for rare disease prevention and treatment have been given priority in China's review and approval process for new medications. A total of 507 new medications have been added to the national medical insurance catalog since the inauguration of the NHSA in 2018, bringing the total to 2,860. (Source: Xinhua)

China has all the right conditions to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030, a goal proposed by the World Health Organization, from the perspectives of prevention and medical treatment, said experts.
"Current therapies can achieve a near 100% cure rate for hepatitis C regardless of whether it is in a major city or in the countryside," said Nan Yuemin, director of the department of integrative hepatology at the Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University.
According to the Chinese Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and Control, there are about 86 million people infected with the hepatitis B virus and approximately 10 million individuals infected with the hepatitis C virus in the country. China has the highest number of cases and deaths related to liver cancer caused by viral hepatitis.

Several innovative therapies for the treatment of hepatitis C have been included in the National Reimbursement Drug List updated in early December. They included three innovative hepatitis C treatments by Gilead Sciences - Vosevi, Epclusa, and Harvoni.
The inclusion of such drugs into the NRDL has allowed hepatitis C patients to gain access to innovative treatment solutions at more affordable prices and have new hopes of a cure, said experts.
Nan said the previous combination treatment process, which usually lasts at least one year, has created much financial and physical burdens on patients. The introduction of innovative therapies, such as those that involve taking only one pill a day, has allowed more patients to receive therapy and be cured.
"The improved accessibility and affordability of innovative drugs will benefit many patients, especially those with refractory, chronic hepatitis C virus infection, and has allowed the country to get closer to the goal of eliminating this disease," she said. (Source: China Daily)

A total of 74 new medications have been added to China's national medical insurance catalog, with prices of 67 medicine types slashed by an average of 61.71%, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said on Dec 3.
Seven drugs for rare diseases, as well as medicines for tumors, chronic diseases, anti-infection treatment and those specifically for women or children, are among the additions to the reimbursement list. Eleven medications with low clinical value and low demand have been removed from the list, the NHSA noted.
A total of 507 medications have been added to the list since the inauguration of the NHSA in 2018, bringing the list to 2,860 items. (Source: Xinhua)

China's latest centralized drug procurement work has preliminarily selected 42 insulin products, resulting in an average price cut of 48%, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration. The products, from 11 domestic and foreign-invested companies, cover 16 varieties of second and third-generation insulin commonly used in clinical treatment.
The first batch of approximately 210 million doses of insulin ordered by medical institutions across the country will be purchased under the program, saving an estimated 9 billion yuan (about $1.4 billion) in costs. It is the first time the national centralized drug procurement program has included biopharmaceuticals, marking a milestone in the reform of the program, the administration said. The centralized procurement of insulin will bring tangible benefits to diabetes patients by lowering medicine prices, as they require the long-term use of insulin to control their blood sugar, it added. (Source: Xinhua)

China's government has made cancer treatments a top priority for the industry, and supportive policies for the sector over the past five years are now bearing fruit and Western firms have come knocking at Chinese biotech doors.
The most recent being a major licensing deal RemeGen Co., Ltd. struck last month with Seattle-based Seagen Inc. The agreement to co-develop cancer treatments using a RemeGen antibody drug conjugate is regarded as one of the biggest of its kind between a Chinese biotech and a Western firm. It provides for up to $2.4 billion in milestone payments, in addition to $200 million upfront as well as royalties if approved.

For Seagen, the RemeGen deal will allow it to directly challenge breast cancer treatments from Roche and AstraZeneca/Daiichi Sankyo. The antibody also shows promise in tackling bladder and stomach tumors.
Other notable deals include a Novartis agreement worth up to $2.2 billion for a BeiGene Ltd. drug. The two are co-developing an antibody similar to Keytruda and Opdivo which help the immune system attack several different types of cancer and which have reaped billions of dollars in sales.
AbbVie has also partnered with I-Mab to co-develop a monoclonal antibody for several types of cancer in a deal worth up to $1.9 billion.

According to Morningstar analyst Jay Lee, an industry expert, the number of large out-licensing pacts for Chinese biotechs is expected to grow, with I-Mab, Innovent Biologics, Junshi Biosciences and Legend Biotech the likely candidates for further licensing deals with Western firms, citing their existing partnerships and pipeline assets. (Source: Reuters)

The prices of artificial joints will be slashed by 82% on average due to a centralized procurement program conducted by China's National Healthcare Security Administration. According to the preliminary bidding results announced by the administration on Tuesday in Tianjin, the prices of hip joints will be cut to 7,000 yuan (about $1,086) from 35,000 yuan, while knee joints will plummet to 5,000 yuan from 32,000 yuan.

Joint replacement is an effective way to treat various joint diseases caused by injuries and degradation. Artificial hip and knee joints make up more than 10% of China's high-value medical-supply market.

For the first year, the centralized procurement program will be used to purchase 540,000 sets of artificial joints, accounting for 90% of the total demand from medical institutions nationwide.

The administration said 44 companies have been chosen from 48 candidates, and patients can expect to use the joint products under the program by March or April 2022. The program has been instituted following the successful trial of the centralized buying of coronary stents, and with full consideration of the whole set of products and accompanying services that joint replacement surgeries require, said the administration. (Source: Xinhua)

A remarkable rise has been seen in the use of internet-based health services since China's State Council or the Cabinet released a guideline on promoting "internet plus health services" in 2018. Number of internet hospitals in China soared from just over 100 in December 2018 to more than 1,600 in June this year, official figures showed, indicating online health services were already a key part of the country's health service system.

The number of people who availed of internet-based health services from the 44 hospitals directly under the management of China's National Health Commission (NHC) in 2020 was 18 times that in 2019, said Ye Quanfu, head of the commission's National Institute of Hospital Administration. Online health consultation sought via third-party platforms multiplied more than 20 times from 2019, Ye added, citing research data.

The internet hospital of Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), one of China's most reputed, is the first of its kind in Beijing to be accredited by authorities. People can now seek online health services from more than 1,200 doctors in 38 departments of the PUMCH. Around 70,000 patients have availed of the services this way.

An immediate benefit of internet technologies, including through web hospitals, is that information helps cut the legwork that patients used to do. Online reservation, online payment, and intelligent triage systems are also increasingly used to improve services at hospitals, according to health authorities.

Experts noted that despite rapid development, internet-empowered medical services in China were still in a primary stage of development. The government departments will explore innovative approaches to regulating the emerging business and creating an enabling environment for its stable and sustainable development, said Liu Wenxian, an official with the NHC. (Source: Xinhua)

More than 2,280 hepatitis B patients had been clinically cured as of June thanks to a project on chronic hepatitis B treatment launched in China. A total of 13,679 patients were treated under this project by the end of June since it was launched in 2018 by the Chinese Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and Control (CFHPC). "China has a large number of hepatitis B patients but a relatively low diagnosis and treatment rate, leading to a heavy burden in treating liver cirrhosis and liver cancer caused by its infection," said Yang Xizhong, executive vice chairman of the CFHPC, on World Hepatitis Day, which falls on Wednesday.

It is estimated that about 86 million hepatitis B virus carriers live in China, of which about 28 million need treatment. In addition, there are approximately 4.5 million people with hepatitis C in China.

China has made remarkable progress in viral hepatitis prevention and control. Programs to immunize the public against hepatitis B -- especially vaccination for the newborn -- since the 1990s and effective measures to reduce mother-to-child transmission have curbed infections at its source. Through decades of efforts, China has cut the positive rate of hepatitis B virus surface antigen among people under five years old to 0.32%, achieving the World Health Organization (WHO) hepatitis B control target in the Western Pacific region ahead of schedule.

WHO regional office for the Western Pacific has hailed China's endeavor at combating hepatitis B, lauding the efforts as a great achievement in the field of public health and setting a good example for other developing countries. About two decades ago, China began to roll out free hepatitis B vaccination for all children. Today's children are a generation with almost no hepatitis B. This landmark progress signifies that China has greatly reduced the number of liver cancer and liver cirrhosis cases in future generations, noted Gauden Galea, WHO Representative in China.

Most regions in China have included the treatment of viral hepatitis in the healthcare and medical insurance system and several direct acting antiviral drugs for hepatitis C treatment have been approved for sale in China since 2017. (Source: Xinhua)

All tertiary general hospitals in China will be required to set up a traditional Chinese medicine department, and all secondary hospitals will be encouraged to build TCM departments, a health official said on July 23.

In the meantime, the country will increase the number of TCM practitioners and drugstores at general hospitals, Yan Huaguo, deputy director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese medicine's medical administration bureau, said during a news briefing. The administration, along with two other government departments, recently released a guideline aimed at promoting joint development of Western medicine and TCM at general hospitals.

Yan said more efforts will be devoted to improving clinical services that meld these two treatment approaches. In addition, the administration will strive to formulate 100 diagnosis and treatment plans that exemplify the integration of Western medicine and TCM in the next five years. Serious diseases such as cancer will be its focus, he said. (Source: China Daily)

Chinese health experts have called for efforts to address the rising overweight and obesity prevalence rate in China among various age groups. The overweight and obesity rate among adults is more than 50%, while that among children aged six to 17 is 19% and children under six 10.4%, said Kong Lingzhi, a member of the Healthy China initiative promotion committee, at a press conference by the National Health Commission (NHC) on July 16.

Besides improved medical efforts, the whole society should act together to prevent and control overweight and obesity, said Kong. Kong added that targeted measures and a coordinated mechanism are required to tackle the issue.

Concerning childhood obesity, special attention should be paid to children under six, according to Zhao Wenhua, the chief nutritionist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Zhao suggested parents should cultivate good eating habits in their children from an early age, engage them in sports activities, and control their intake of sugary drinks.

The NHC regularly monitors the nutrition and health status of residents, said Zhao. He added that China implemented a nutritional improvement program for rural students receiving compulsory education, focusing on preventing overweight and obesity. (Source: Xinhua)

Chinese health literacy levels increased to 23.2% last year, up 6.1 percentage points on 2018, an official with the National Health Commission said on July 16. This suggests that 23 out of every 100 people now have basic health-related knowledge and skills according to the commission.

Mao Qun'an, director of the commission's department of Planning and Information, also said that China has improved health interventions since it issued nationwide disease control and health promotion guidelines in June 2019. The guidelines proposed the creation of 15 special campaigns to improve the nation's overall health, ranging from disseminating health-related information and stepping up tobacco control, to improving dietary habits and mental health.

Mao said incidence rates for major chronic diseases, like cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as key infectious diseases in hard-hit regions, have since been reined in. However, he said unhealthy behavior, including tobacco use and the lack of exercise, are still widespread, and more effort is needed to address these issues. (Source: China Daily)

China witnessed significant drops in new cases of nearly all major infectious diseases last year, with the number of new HIV/AIDS infections seeing its first year-on-year decline in a decade, according to an annual health development communique released by the National Health Commission on Monday.

The number of viral hepatitis cases dropped by 11.5% year-on-year, with tuberculosis cases down by about 13.6%, the communique said. The two diseases were the most prevalent among all 40 notifiable contagious illnesses. Reported cases of other diseases transmitted mainly through respiratory droplets, such as flu, measles, mumps, scarlet fever and hand-foot-mouth disease, also declined markedly. Experts said previously that COVID-19 disease control measures, such as keeping social distance, wearing masks and washing hands regularly, can also play a role in curbing the spread of many other viruses. As the pandemic has caused a sharp reduction in international travel, imported infections of dengue fever and malaria, whose domestic spread has been largely eliminated (dropped by over 96% and 57% respectively last year).

China reported about 62,170 HIV/AIDS infections last year, down by more than 9,000 from 2019. But HIV/AIDS remained the deadliest infectious disease, with more than 18,800 people dying of AIDS-related illnesses last year, the communique said. COVID-19, which was added to the list of notifiable infectious illnesses in January last year, led to 87,071 infections and 4,634 deaths in 2020, with the data including imported cases detected on the Chinese mainland. The communique said the COVID-19 pandemic also led to a reduction in the number of visits to medical institutions and hospitalizations last year, both falling by more than 10% compared with 2019. (Source: China Daily)

The prevalence of myopia or nearsightedness among Chinese preschoolers and young students was 52.7% in 2020, a health official said at a press conference on July 13. This is a rise of 2.5 percentage points from 2019 but still 0.9 percentage points lower than 2018, said Zenawdu Hasayn, an official with the disease control department of the National Health Commission (NHC), quoting a recent national survey. The rise in myopia rate may be attributed to reduced outdoor activities due to the COVID-19 epidemic last year, according to the official.

China conducted a nationwide survey from September to December 2020, covering more than 2.47 million students from 8,604 schools across the country. The prevalence of the condition among primary school students rose relatively faster, said Zenawdu Hasayn, who warned of myopia among young kids as a prominent problem.

However, progression into high myopia has slowed down. The prevalence of high myopia among junior middle school students and high school students logged a decrease of 0.5 percentage points in 2020 from that in 2018, the official said.
Shen Haiping, another NHC official, said the government attaches great importance to youngsters' eye health. The country has included eye care and vision tests for children aged six and below in national public health services, with a coverage rate of 91.8% in 2020. (Source: Xinhua)

The World Health Organization declared China free of malaria on June 30, hailing its "notable feat" of driving annual cases down from 30 million to zero in 70 years. The WHO said China had become the first country in the Western Pacific region to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease in over three decades, after Australia, Singapore and Brunei. "Their success was hard-earned and came only after decades of targeted and sustained action," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said in a statement released on Wednesday. "With this announcement, China joins the growing number of countries that are showing the world that a malaria-free future is a viable goal."

Malaria is a disease transmitted by mosquito bites or blood infusion. In 2019, about 229 million cases were reported worldwide, causing 409,000 deaths, according to a WHO report. In China, it was estimated that 30 million people suffered from the scourge annually in the 1940s, with a death rate of 1%. At that time, about 80% of districts and counties across the country grappled with endemic malaria, the National Health Commission said.

China reported no domestic malaria infections for the first time in 2017, and has recorded no local cases since. In November, China filed an application for malaria-free certification to the WHO. In May, experts convened by the WHO conducted evaluations in Hubei, Anhui, Yunnan and Hainan provinces. The certification is granted to a country when it registers no local infections for at least three consecutive years and demonstrates the capacity to prevent possible transmission in the future. Forty countries and territories have been issued with the certificate so far, according to the WHO.

However, Zhou Xiaonong, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, said China still records about 3,000 imported malaria cases a year, and Anopheles, the genus of mosquito that can spread malarial parasites to humans, still exists in some regions where malaria used to be a heavy public health burden. (Source: China Daily)

The fifth round of the centralized drug-procurement program, which took place in Shanghai on June 23, saw 201 companies bidding to provide medicines to public health facilities, including hospitals. Of those companies making bids, 148 were successful on June 23, with 251 products being qualified. Among the bid-winning products are 11 products from 10 foreign-funded enterprises.

China launched the national centralized procurement system in late 2018. As per the centralized mechanism, drug makers that significantly cut prices are eligible for a large-volume procurement led by the government, in an effort to alleviate medical burdens of the public and to boost the drug accessibility.

Ding Yilei, an official at the National Healthcare Insurance Administration, said during an interview with China Central Television that drugs selected during the fifth and latest round of procurement are estimated to be worth about 55 billion yuan ($8.5 billion), the highest in history. Injectable medications commonly used for intensive care and treatment of severe symptoms account for about 70% of the total value, he added.

These medicines selected through the current round of the Chinese government's new centralized drug-procurement program will be 56% cheaper than normal, on average, for those public health facilities that purchase them, according to the National Healthcare Insurance Administration. (Source: Xinhua and China Daily)

Hospitals in China saw a 15% increase in 2020 in the variety of medical insurance covered anti-cancer drugs with negotiated price cuts compared with 2019. The data was based on results from a monitoring network that covers more than 1,400 hospitals across China, Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission, told a press conference on May 10.

In 2018, 17 anti-cancer drugs were included in China's medical insurance reimbursement list, with their prices cut by 56.7 percent on average after a round of price negotiations between the National Healthcare Security Administration and pharmaceutical companies. The hospitals under the monitoring network purchased 450.8 percent more of the 17 anti-cancer drugs on average in 2020 than in 2018, Guo said, adding that the accessibility of anti-cancer drugs for clinical use has increased. (Source: Xinhua)

China has expanded the channels for patients to buy medicine under the country's medical insurance programs, a healthcare security official said on May 10.

For medicines covered under the healthcare security system's price negotiation program, patients can purchase their medicines either at hospitals or in qualified drug stores, and both channels enjoy the same reimbursement terms, said Huang Huabo, an official with the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA), at a press conference. Huang said such measures are intended to ensure the supplies of relevant drugs and meet patients' needs.

The NHSA and the National Health Commission recently issued a joint circular on the move to include relevant drug stores into the healthcare security system's supply chain and insurance payment system. (Source: Xinhua)

China will introduce a pilot program to promote the inoculation of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and improve the rate and quality of cervical cancer screening nationwide this year, according to a health official.

The National Health Commission (NHC) is working to enhance measures for the tertiary prevention of cervical cancer to protect women's health, said NHC official Song Li.

Song said that China implemented a cervical cancer screening program in major national public health services in 2009. More than 120 million cervical cancer examinations have been conducted free of charge across the nation, Song added. (Source: Xinhua)

China's nationwide maternal mortality rate was 16.9 per 100,000 in 2020, down 15.9% than 2015, said a health official on April 29.

The infant mortality rate was 5.4 per 1,000 in 2020, a decrease of 33.3% compared with 2015, said Song Li, head of the division of women and children of the National Health Commission at a news briefing. The mortality rate of children under five years old is 7.5 per 1,000 in 2020, down 30% compared with 2015, she said.

The maternal mortality rate is well below the median of 43 per 100,000 in middle- and upper-income countries. China's core indicators of maternal and child health also rank top among middle- and upper-income countries in the world, she added.
In the last five years, the commission has improved policies and measures related to the health of women and children, optimized the allocation of resources, and effectively strengthened medical service related to childbirth, Song said. (Source: Xinhua)

More than 120 million cervical cancer screenings were conducted free in China as part of the country's efforts to protect women's health.

The mortality rate of cervical cancer among Chinese women is 5.5 per 100,000, lower than the global average of 9.7 per 100,000, Song Li, an official of the National Health Commission (NHC), said at a press conference here on April 29, citing data from an annual report on tumor registry in China.

The disease is preventable and also curable if detected early and treated adequately, yet it is the fourth most common cancer among women globally. Without additional measures, the annual number of new cases of cervical cancer is expected to increase from 570,000 to 700,000 between 2018 and 2030, while the yearly number of deaths is projected to rise from 311,000 to 400,000, according to statistics released by the World Health Organization.

The NHC is playing an active role in promoting inoculation against cervical cancer, as well as its screening among Chinese women, Song said. (Source Xinhua)

The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with malignant tumors in China has increased to over 40%, up from 30.9% 10 years ago, according to a senior health official.

The rise has been attributed to the improvement of the country's medical care quality and diagnosis and treatment capabilities, said Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of the Medical Administration of the National Health Commission, at a press conference on April 27. (Source: Xinhua)

A national program dedicated to improving the medical treatment capacity and capability of lymphoma, a type of cancer that begins in immune system cells, was established on April 24. The launch ceremony of the program initiated by the National Health Commission Capacity Building and Continuing Education Center was held in Beijing.

The center said that the program, which is supported by Roche Pharma China, will integrate relevant resources to form a lymphoma specialist alliance consisting of a pathology center, a clinical center, and a whole-process management center. Through capacity building, specialized talent training, and the construction of a quality control system, the program aims to comprehensively promote the country's overall medical strength in treating the disease and establish a standard, patient-oriented disease diagnosis and treatment path, according to the center.

Yang Aiping, director of the National Health Commission Capacity Building and Continuing Education Center, said that the program, which will include multiple medical disciplines and cover the full span of disease development, will focus on the grassroots level and help medical education in this field achieve better standards in a more systematic manner.

Dozens of experts from across the country were hired to be on the expert team for the program. Ma Jun, director of the Harbin Blood Disease and Tumor Institute of Harbin First Hospital, was appointed the leader of the expert team. "With the innovations regarding therapies and the coverage of medical insurance policies continuing to grow in recent years, the accessibility and affordability of treatments for lymphoma patients in China have greatly improved. However, there are still various unsatisfied needs from the patients throughout the diagnosis and treatment process. A lot can be done," Ma said.

Lymphoma is a common malignant tumor with relatively high control and recovery rates. The five-year survival rate of such patients is 38.3% in China, which is far lower than developed countries. Experts said that factors, including unclear diagnosis, non-standardized self-care of the patients and not adhering to instructions for regular follow-up treatments, have affected the overall treatment effect and prognosis. (Source: China Daily)

A pilot program of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), which classifies different groups of patients to streamline medical insurance payment, has been put in a simulation run in 30 Chinese cities, the National Healthcare Security Administration said on March 9.

All the cities in the simulation run program, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Qingdao and Urumqi, have passed an examination and evaluation, the administration said in a statement. In the program, patients will be classified into DRGs on the basis of factors such as their clinical diagnosis, age, complications and treatment methods. Medical fees and insurance payments will thus be based on DRG classification instead of specific cases.

The program is expected to ensure more accurate management of medical institutions and patients, standardize hospitals' diagnosis and treatment, improve services for the patients and make more efficient use of the healthcare insurance funds, according to the administration. (Source: Xinhua)

A new national reimbursement drug list took effect on March 1 in a major boost to relieving the financial burden on Chinese patients and increasing accessibility to innovative, lifesaving drugs. The updated list of 2,800 medicines covered by basic medical insurance was released in late December. It includes 119 newly added drugs with an average price cut of 51%, the National Healthcare Administration Bureau said. The considerable price reduction is largely due to price negotiations between the administration and drug manufacturers in November and December, it said.

Patients are projected to save about 28 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) this year, thanks to price reductions and medical reimbursement, it said. The administration said that compared to previous adjustments to the list, the latest additions cover a wider range of conditions, from cancer and rare diseases to COVID-19, in a bid to bring concrete benefits to more people.

At Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Nie Guangmeng, head of the healthcare insurance department, said "the latest list will markedly ease the burdens of patients," he said. "For instance, the price of lenvatinib (a medication for treatment of thyroid cancer and some other cancers) has dropped from 16,800 yuan to 3,240 yuan, and more people are eligible to claim reimbursement under the new policy."

Yin Rutie, a gynecologist at West China Second University Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, said the inclusion of olaparib, an innovative therapy against ovarian cancer, will slash out-of-pocket payments shouldered by patients by as much as 90%. "For years, treatment targeting advanced stages of ovarian cancer mainly centered on surgeries and chemotherapy, but about 70% of patients are likely to relapse within two to three years following these standard procedures," she told Cover.cn, an online news portal. Yin said based on available research, the promising drug is projected to raise the five-year survival rate of ovarian cancer patients to 70%, representing a "breakthrough and milestone" for patients. She said the new drug list is expected to enable more patients to access the lifesaving medication.

The administration said the list includes 17 new cancer drugs. Through negotiations, the prices of 14 oncology medications already covered by medical insurance also dropped by an average of nearly 15%. (Source: China Daily)

China's Chongqing municipality has been approved as a port of entry for imported drugs, making it the only such entry port in west China and the fourth in the Chinese mainland following Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The permission for entry was granted by China's National Medical Products Administration, a city official told a press conference.

Previously, imported drugs had to pass through China's eastern ports to arrive in western regions, and it could take up to 40 days or more for the consignments to arrive in Chongqing, said Luo Li, deputy director of the municipal drug administration. However, after the approval, the time is expected to shorten to around 15 days through the China-Europe freight train service, Luo added.

The approval will bring more imports of novel drugs through Chongqing and strengthen the competitiveness of the city's pharmaceutical industry, said Yuan Quan, president of Chongqing Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. It will also prompt foreign pharmaceutical magnates to set up projects involving pharmaceutical research and development and clinical trial of drugs in Chongqing to fast-track the development of pharmaceutical industry clusters, Luo said. (Source: Xinhua)

The national drug bulk-buy program initiated in late 2018 is estimated to have saved patients 106 billion yuan ($16.6 billion) by the end of last year, and the country is planning to implement the system on a regular basis, officials said on Jan 29.

After three rounds of price negotiations with drug manufacturers and centralized procurement campaigns, 112 types of drugs were selected and their prices fell by an average of 54%, said Chen Jinfu, deputy head of the National Healthcare Security Administration. "The average price of these drugs used to be two to three times higher than global levels. Now, it has dropped to roughly the same level," Chen told a news conference. In addition to the nationwide program, local authorities have launched 20 rounds of provincial-level bulk-buy programs, covering nearly 260 types of medications. Regional combined procurements are expected to yield savings of 24 billion yuan a year, he added.

According to a circular released this month by the State Council, the country's Cabinet, the drug bulk-buy program will become a regular and institutionalized practice to help lower medical costs for the general public. Chen said a fourth round of drug procurements is underway, with the move projected to lead to price cuts in May. "The long-term goal is to gradually cover a wider range of medications through national channels. Local authorities will be guided to target more high-demand and costly drugs as an additional boost to driving down pharmaceutical prices," he said. To ensure the program brings concrete benefits to the public, officials said more incentives will be rolled out to encourage medical workers to prescribe selected drugs on a priority basis.

Wang Xuetao, an official at the National Health Commission's department of drug policy and essential medicine, said that medical institutions are being encouraged to regularly and appropriately upgrade their budgetary systems to make use of amounts saved through the bulk-buy program. To make sure patients benefit from the new measures, he said, the use of selected drugs with price cuts will be taken into account when appraising the performance of hospital heads. Chen said a certain amount of the 100 billion yuan-plus savings has been reserved for medical institutions to allow them to increase incomes of health workers. "Some hospitals in Beijing have given more than 1 million yuan to medical workers as an incentive to choose centrally procured drugs for patients," he said.

The outcome of these incentives is evident as the use of drugs made by successful bidders has increased exponentially, Chen said. "The demand spike shows that the program has already expanded public access to medications," he added. (Source: China Daily)

Starting in 2021, Ordos city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region is offering offer free vaccinations against human papilloma virus for female residents from ages 13 to 18, the local government said recently. Ordos became the first city in China to promote such a free vaccination policy. It covers all female residents between 13 and 18 with local household registry, and is designed to help prevent cervical cancer. Cervical cancer, which can be caused by HPV, is one of the most common tumor diseases for women in China and is highly fatal. According to the policy, girls will be offered two-valent HPV vaccines in appointed medical institutions and only need to pay for the cost of vaccine transportation, storage and disposal.

Last August, during a public well-being project launched by Juungar Banner in the city, nearly 10,000 girls from 13 to 18 in the region received free HPV vaccines. Over the past five years, the Ordos government has provided free cervical and breast cancer examinations for more than 190,000 women from 35 to 64. The local government has put over 30 million yuan ($4.67 million) into the project and will continue the free examinations for local female residents. (Source: National Health Commission)