China’s national medical insurance catalog includes 45 orphan drugs

45 kinds of orphan drugs have been included in China’s national medical insurance catalog.

This inclusion is to date as the country ramps up efforts to increase drug affordability for patients of rare diseases.

According to data released at the ongoing 2022 China Conference on Rare Diseases in Beijing, these orphan drugs are used in the treatment of 26 rare diseases.

19 new orphan drugs had been added to the national medical insurance catalogue, since 2018, with an average price reduction of 52.6 per cent.

There are more than 20 million patients with various types of rare diseases in China, with the number increasing by over 200,000 yearly, said the data.