(Bloomberg) -- China approved AstraZeneca Plc’s blockbuster breast cancer treatment for reimbursement by state-run medical insurance amid an ongoing probe into its illegal sales practices, in a reassuring sign for the British drugmaker’s wider business.
AstraZeneca’s Enhertu is among 91 drugs that will be added to the National Reimbursement Drug List effective Jan. 1, Chinese officials said at a briefing Thursday. Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Roche Holding AG, Sanofi SA and Merck & Co. also earned spots on the list with drugs for anti-inflammatory, blood cancer and infectious diseases.
The stakes are high for both global and Chinese drugmakers to negotiate state medical insurance coverage for their drugs in China, the world’s second biggest pharmaceutical market. Beijing usually demands hefty cuts on the price of new drugs in exchange for adding them to the NRDL. This year the average price cuts was 63%.
Many global drugmakers are willing to agree to the cuts, selling the same drug in China at the fraction of its price in the US and hoping that the insurance coverage could boost volumes that eventually help offset the price concession.
AstraZeneca is pushing ahead with its business in China, while Leon Wang, the drugmaker’s country president, has been probed by police over alleged breaches of laws around drug importation and data privacy. Besides Wang, the government is investigating other current or former executives in AstraZeneca’s China unit.
Enhertu is an antibody-drug conjugate targeting the HER2 protein, which promotes the growth of cancer cells. It is among AstraZeneca’s top-selling products with $2.7 billion in global sales in the first three quarters of this year.
This year’s NRDL is being viewed as a bellwether for how the government would balance innovation with affordability. Among the new entrants, a record 38 are innovative medicines, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration, the body overseeing national medical insurance.
Among other notable candidates that made it to the NRDL are some homegrown biotech companies. Akeso Inc. won insurance coverage for lung cancer drug ivonescimab, and cervical cancer treatment cadonilimab. In addition, drugs of Innovent Biologics Inc, Zai Lab Ltd, BeiGene Ltd, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co, Dizal Jiangsu Pharmaceutical Co and Luye Pharma Group Ltd. were also approved.
Misses that stood out were the four CAR-T cell therapies — which cost 1 million yuan ($137,974) or more, with the NHSA officials saying the primary function of the national medical insurance remains to cover the basics. Private insurers would have to step up to expand coverage of expensive cutting-edge therapies such as cell and gene therapies, the officials said.
Before the NRDL announcement, the NHSA on Wednesday said it’s pushing for a series of policies to empower commercial insurance, including making state medical insurance data available to private insurance and one-stop settlement to incentivize more investments in the space.
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