HONG KONG - HUTCHMED (China) Limited (Nasdaq/AIM: HCM; HKEX: 13) has announced that ORPATHYS® (savolitinib), its medication for certain lung cancer patients, will maintain its status on the National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL) in China under the existing terms. The continuation follows a contract renewal with the China National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) and is effective from January 1, 2025.
ORPATHYS® is a selective MET tyrosine kinase inhibitor used in treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with MET exon 14 skipping alterations, a mutation found in 2-3% of NSCLC patients worldwide. Since its conditional approval in China in June 2021, ORPATHYS® has been available for NSCLC patients who have progressed following prior systemic therapy or are unable to receive chemotherapy.
The drug was first included in the NRDL on March 1, 2023. The NRDL, which is updated annually, plays a crucial role in making innovative medicines more affordable in China. Currently, about 95% of the Chinese population, or 1.33 billion people, are covered by basic medical insurance. The inclusion of drugs like ORPATHYS® on the NRDL means that patients can access them with varying degrees of copayment, which is determined by their province and the specific NHSA insurance scheme they are enrolled in.
Developed jointly by HUTCHMED and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN), ORPATHYS® is the first selective MET inhibitor approved in China and the first of its kind to be listed on the NRDL. It is also under clinical development for multiple tumor types beyond lung cancer, including kidney and gastric cancers, and is being studied both as a single treatment and in combination with other medicines.
HUTCHMED is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of targeted therapies and immunotherapies for cancer and immunological diseases. It has a global presence with approximately 5,000 personnel and is known for bringing cancer drug candidates from in-house discovery to patients worldwide.
This news is based on a press release statement and does not contain any promotional content. It is intended to provide information on the availability of ORPATHYS® to patients in China through the NRDL. The continued inclusion of ORPATHYS® on the NRDL ensures that it remains accessible to the vast majority of Chinese patients with basic medical insurance.
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