Latest news with #innovative drugs
South China Morning Post
21-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's plan to boost drug coverage by commercial insurers no ‘magic wand', analysts say
Beijing's plan to publish China's first list of innovative drugs eligible for coverage by commercial health insurance will draw keen interest from pharmaceutical companies, but is not a 'magic wand', as insurers lack sufficient incentives to provide the coverage, analysts said. The National Healthcare Security Administration, in charge of the state-run basic healthcare insurance scheme, said in a policy document on July 1 that it would publish the list this year, primarily including drugs that were not covered by state insurance but were highly innovative and provided clear improvements in medical outcomes. The list would be a 'major attempt to better meet the public's multi-level and diverse drugs demand', said Huang Xinyu, head of the administration's medical services management department, on July 11, as reported by Xinhua. Both domestic and multinational drug developers will likely be drawn to the initiative, but the same cannot be said of insurers, said Webster Guo, principal at L.E.K. Consulting's China healthcare practice. 'There's likely no harm for drug companies to apply [to have their products included],' he said. 'If you are lagging behind your competitors, the downside could be significant.' But the situation presented an 'impossible triangle' for insurers, who would struggle to devise products that would achieve national coverage while providing sufficient reimbursement levels at a price that people were willing to pay, he said, because the source of funding was 'not solved'. Commercial health-insurance payouts of 383.8 billion yuan (US$53.5 billion) in 2023 covered only 6.8 per cent of total direct healthcare costs, while state basic health insurance covered 49.7 per cent and patients paid for 43.5 per cent themselves, according to the Shanghai Insurance Association.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
China's Biotech Is Quietly Eating Big Pharma's Lunch
Chinese biotech is no longer playing catch-up it's becoming the main event. In 2024, more than 1,250 innovative drugs entered development in China, nearly overtaking the US and leaving the EU behind. This isn't just a numbers game. Chinese firms like Akeso (AKESF) are now developing therapies that are outperforming global blockbusters like Merck's Keytruda in head-to-head trials. The quality leap has been fast, fueled by regulatory reforms, foreign-trained scientists, and an R&D machine that moves at blistering speed. Data from Norstella shows China now earns more expedited drug reviews than the EU a signal that Western regulators are paying attention. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Signs with AKESF. Multinational pharma isn't waiting around. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) just cut a $1.2 billion upfront deal with 3SBio. Summit Therapeutics paid $500 million for rights to Akeso's cancer therapy. These aren't niche plays they're big bets on the future. And with China's massive patient pool and streamlined hospital network, companies can run trials in half the time (and at a fraction of the cost) compared to the US. That speed lets Chinese firms launch multiple shots on goal and global players are lining up to license the winners. From cell therapies to obesity drugs, the East is becoming the place where the drug pipeline gets built. But approval is still a long game. US regulators aren't greenlighting drugs based solely on China trial data not yet. And with rising geopolitical tension, some in Washington are sounding alarms over biotech dependencies. Still, the shift is underway. In just five years, the number of top-ranked Chinese drug innovators has quadrupled. Investors watching this space aren't asking whether China will lead the next wave of biotech innovation. They're asking how soon. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
