Nineteen novel drugs have been selected for inclusion in the first iteration of China's Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug Catalogue, portending potential access benefits as the program gains momentum.\u00a0The list, which was unveiled by China's National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) at a Dec. 7 press conference in Guangzhou, was whittled down from 24 drugs that entered final pricing negotiations and 121 that initially passed a formal review, according to local\u00a0reports.<\/p>\n
The catalog is set to take effect from Jan. 1, 2026, and prioritizes innovative drugs with \u201chigh levels of innovation, significant clinical value, substantial patient benefits, and coverage exceeding the scope of basic medical insurance,\u201d the NHSA explained in a\u00a0disclosure. Among the drugs that made the\u00a0list are several CAR-T therapies, plus targeted cancer treatments including BeiGene\u2019s HER2 bispecific Ziihera, Pfizer\u2019s multiple myeloma med Empliciti, Bristol Myers Squibb\u2019s Yervoy and Johnson & Johnson\u2019s Talvey. Alzheimer\u2019s disease treatments from Eli Lilly and partners Eisai and Biogen made the grade, as well.<\/p>\n
Unlike the well-established National Reimbursement Drug List, which ensures coverage under the state-run national medical insurance scheme, drugs that made the inaugural commercial insurance roster won\u2019t enjoy any guaranteed coverage. Instead, drugs on the new formulary are recommended for commercial health coverage.<\/p>\n
The formulary is expected to be gradually incorporated into commercial insurance programs backed by local governments. These programs, already available to residents at a relatively low out-of-pocket premium in some large Chinese cities, are considered supplemental to the national insurance scheme, with some already offering different levels of coverage for some pricey medicines, such as CAR-Ts.\u00a0(Source: Fierce Pharma)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nineteen novel drugs have been selected for inclusion in the first iteration of China's Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug Catalogue, portending potential access benefits as the program gains momentum.\u00a0The list, which was unveiled by China's National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) at a Dec. 7 press conference in Guangzhou, was whittled down from 24 drugs that entered final pricing negotiations and 121 that initially passed a formal review, according to local\u00a0reports. The catalog is set to take effect from Jan. 1, 2026, and prioritizes innovative drugs with \u201chigh levels of innovation, significant clinical value, substantial patient benefits, and coverage exceeding the scope of basic medical insurance,\u201d the NHSA explained in a\u00a0disclosure.... Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medicalnews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":975,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssri.com\/china\/e\/medicalnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}