China enforces new national medical insurance catalog

BEIJING — China's new national medical insurance catalog came into effect on Jan 1, 2020, including 70 new drugs with their prices slashed by 60.7 percent on average.

Eight domestically-produced drugs that are seen as "major innovations" and have just hit the market in recent years are among the new additions, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA).

Some 22 anti-cancer drugs, seven drugs for rare diseases, 14 for chronic diseases and four for children will be included in the catalog, and the prices of three new drugs for hepatitis C will be reduced by an average of 85 percent, said the NHSA.

Most of the additions are new drugs of high clinical value that can be used to treat multiple diseases including cancer, diabetes and tuberculosis, and the prices of most imported drugs will be set at the lowest in the world.

After the price reduction and medical insurance reimbursements, the financial burden on patients will be eased by over 80 percent.

The additions are part of the first adjustments to the catalog since the NHSA was established in 2018. After the adjustments, the 2019 catalog has a total of 2,709 drugs, compared with 2,645 in 2017.