Some interesting bits:

A total of 119 new therapies - treating everything from pulmonary diseases and diabetes to cancers and lupus - were added for coverage by the state-run medical safety net after drawn-out negotiations, the National Healthcare Security Administration said in a notice posted on its website on Monday.

Patients in China would only need to pay a small fraction of the cost of these drugs out of their own pocket as the lion's share of the bill will be footed by China's 2.44 trillion yuan (S$500 billion) national medical insurance fund, which covers more than 95 per cent of the country's 1.4 billion people. The list has been annually updated with new entries since 2017, when Beijing accelerated its campaign to bring the best drugs to its growing middle class as quickly and cheaply as possible.

In total, Chinese patients can now draw on state insurance to pay for 2,800 medications. Beijing also managed to slash prices more than 40 per cent on average for 14 drugs whose annual sales exceed one billion yuan each. The new version of medical drug reimbursement list will be effective from March 1.

For foreign drugmakers, the competition in China has brought significant sacrifices. New drugs are often brought to the China market at prices lower than they are sold in the West, but still face competition from a growing legion of Chinese biotech firms developing similar drugs that can be sold more cheaply.

Global pharmaceutical companies' older drugs that have gone off-patent are also facing price cuts. In a separate national campaign in which China's public hospitals bulk-buy generic medications, prices have been driven down by as much as 90 per cent.

https://archive.vn/HiQJt