China

Last fall, Beijing decreased the red tape involved in obtaining drug approvals, and the change is already producing results, with many patients in China now able to receive cutting edge medicines before they are introduced in the US. Companies such as AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly are bringing their therapeutics to pharmacies in Shanghai and Beijing nearly a year before they will be available in the US. Experts predict that within two decades China’s health care market will be comparable, if not bigger, than the US’s. This is largely due to the spike in medical insurance amongst Chinese citizens that began around 2016; as of 2017, nearly 1.2 billion Chinese are enrolled in public medical insurance.

China’s FDA was known for its red tape–laden drug approval process, with the Administration itself stating that between 2001 and 2016, less than 33% of 433 new treatments that were approved in developed countries were available in China. But in October 2017, the Chinese FDA removed a criterion requiring companies to re-conduct all clinical drug trials in China before it approves the drugs. This move greatly changed the pharmaceutical industry, as now companies are able to simultaneously introduce drugs in China and the US. Since 2014, China’s FDA has decreased the backlog number of drugs waiting for approval 78.9% to just four thousand left to greenlight.

Source: Bloomberg

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