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CARSgen Wins China’s Fifth CAR-T Approval But Pricing Dilemma Unresolved

 
• By Dexter Jie Yan

As China’s fifth approved CAR-T cell therapy, CARSgen/Huadong’s zevorcabtagene autoleucel is priced at $159,735 for a single infusion. Expanding patient access will become a formidable task for the companies, due to the poor prospects of reimbursement coverage by China’s public medical insurance program. 

patient access
CARSgen and partner Huadong face formidable task to expand patient access to their CAR-T therapy • Source: Shutterstock

Chinese immuno-oncology specialist CARsgen Therapeutics and Huadong Medicine Co., Ltd., its domestic commercialization partner, on 1 March won regulatory approval in China for zevorcabtagene autoleucel (zevor-cel), an autologous BCMA-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma, in the fourth- and later-line setting.

While the approval for zevor-cel added to prior green lights granted to four homegrown and joint venture-developed CAR-T cell regimens in China since 2021, CARSgen/Huadong still faces a dilemma of expanding patient access to

Key Takeaways

  • CARSgen/Huadong’s zevor-cel, targeting BCMA for the later-line treatment of multiple myeloma, has been approved as the fifth CAR-T cell therapy in China.

  • CARSgen/Huadong faces a dilemma of expanding the patient access to zevor-cel,which is priced at CNY1.15m ($159,735) for a single infusion

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