China’s new drug insurance: lifeline for patients or squeeze on big pharmaceutical firms?

Mainland China’s 17 million Alzheimer’s patients can, for the first time, pay less out of pocket for a costly drug touted as “historic” and “the beginning of the end” for the memory-robbing disease after Beijing launched a commercial insurance innovative drug list in an effort to make medicines more accessible and affordable.

Leqembi, developed by Japan’s Eisai and costing a mainland Chinese patient about US$28,400 a year, could see its price cut by half after it was added to the inaugural edition of commercial insurance for innovative drugs unveiled last week. The list includes US drug maker Eli Lilly’s Kisunla, which has been described by international media as a “turning point” in the fight against Alzheimer’s.