Revealed: Multinationals Flock To China’s No-Frills Insurance Initiatives

Side-stepping annual drug price negotiations and resulting deep price cuts, multinational drug makers are looking elsewhere to an emerging niche medical insurance scheme in China as they hope to gain an edge versus local competitors.

Huimin Insurance
survey finds multinationals are carving out China market access pathway via Huiminbao insurance initiative • Source: Alamy

When Huiminbao, or the "people-benefiting insurance scheme" was first rolled out in China, few believed the new and low-cost coverage program would be able to solve the biggest issue facing the vast patient population in the country - affordable access to innovative new drugs.

Multinational pharma firms nevertheless hopped onboard, many of them having turned away from rounds of deep-cutting price negotiations initiated by the Chinese government in exchange for

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