BRIEF—17 Cancer drugs approved for reimbursement in China

After rounds of price negotiations, 17 cancer drugs were added in China's national healthcare reimbursement catalog, giving the manufacturers immediate access to all public hospitals nationwide.

Among the drugs, there are Bayer's Stivarga (regorafenib), Erbitux (cetuximab) from fellow German company Merck KGaA and Swiss giant Roche's Zelboraf (vemurafenib).

The prices will be effective until November 30, 2020, after when they will be adjusted.

And BeiGene’s Vidaza added to reimbursement list

Meantime, BeiGene also announced that China’s State Medical Insurance Administration (SMIA) has included Vidaza (azacitidine for injection) on its national reimbursement drug list (NRDL).

Vidaza is a nucleoside metabolic inhibitor and was approved in China for patients with intermediate-2 / high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with 20%-30% bone marrow blasts and chronic myelomonocyte leukemia (CMML).

It is marketed in China by BeiGene under an exclusive license from Celgene.