Published on: 2026-09-04
Source: People’s Republic of China — Translation
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Beijing, September 4 /Xinhua/ — China will continue to expand the national medical insurance catalog in order to include a greater number of innovative drugs intended for the treatment of cancer, chronic and rare diseases, as well as pediatric diseases, to ease the financial burden for patients and their families.
Deputy Head of the State Administration of Medical Security (SAMS) of the PRC Li Tao reported at a press conference on Friday that since 2018, 949 drugs have been included in this list, including 199 innovative medicines.
The aforementioned agency plans to expand the list of innovative medicines covered by commercial health insurance. This will encourage commercial insurers to be the first to cover the cost of drugs that are not included in the basic medical insurance program but have significant clinical benefits and meet important medical needs.
In addition, this will shorten approval times and help accelerate the implementation of pharmaceutical innovations in clinical practice, Lee Tao added.
In recent years, China’s biopharmaceutical sector has shown rapid growth. According to a McKinsey study, by 2025 China accounted for about 30 percent of the global portfolio of biopharmaceutical developments, whereas ten years ago this figure was only 2 percent. Furthermore, last year about 20 percent of all global licensing deals were also attributed to China.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the PRC, in the first half of 2026, the total amount of transactions for licensing innovative pharmaceutical drugs in China reached a record level, exceeding 100 billion USD. -0-
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