A Long March After Approval: What You Need To Launch Orphan Drugs In China

18 Oct 2018

Without automatic reimbursement in place, makers of orphan and rare disease drugs must look at innovative alternative ways to make their high-priced new therapies accessible to patients in China.

Money Wave — A Long march towards reimbursement for orphan drugs in China • Source: Shutterstock

Priced at $125,000 per injection and $750,000 for the first year of treatment, Biogen Inc.’s Spinraza (nusinersen) is the the first US FDA-approved treatment for rare spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and now the company is looking to bring the high-priced drug to China.

Riding the country’s surging wave of new therapies and accelerated approvals for critical and rare disease treatments, the US biotech...