Posted by Michael Wonder on 28 Nov 2018
Drug makers gain more access to China, but at a price
28 November 2018 - Regulators have green-lighted dozens of outside drugs for use in China over the past 21 months, some within a few weeks.
The approvals follow a series of policy moves by China to provide its 1.4 billion people access to new, lifesaving drugs, especially those that treat cancer.
New Jersey-based Merck & Co received the most approvals — eight — out of the 30 innovative foreign drugs approved by China’s drug regulator through September this year, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co. The regulator is on track this year to match or even surpass the 40 innovative foreign drug approvals it granted last year, the most in any single year for at least a decade. In 2016, China approved three such foreign drugs.
