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BIZCHINA / Center
Imports of blood drug approved
By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-20 14:02
The top drug authority is set to approve imports of a hemophilia
treatment to help make up for a shortfall that has deprived some patients
of the medication they need.
The recombinant-clotting factor produced by the German pharmaceutical
company Bayer Healthcare will be on the market soon, according to an
announcement on the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) website.
"This does not mean that we are easing the two-decade ban on imported
blood and plasma-derived products of all kinds," SFDA spokeswoman Yan
Jiangying said on Wednesday.
The authorities imposed the ban in 1986, in response to a case of HIV
infection caused by imported factor VIII that was detected around 1983.
The German-made treatment does not fall into the categroy of products
that are subject to the embargo because it is not made from human plasma,
said Yin Hongzhang, a division director with the SFDA's department of
drug registration.
However, the recombinant-clotting factor has the same medical effect as
plasma-derived factor VIII. It is widely used to treat hemophiliacs in
China.
Many clinicians believe such treatments pose little risk of transmitting
an infectious disease.
Larry Zhang, regional head for Asia Pacific of Bayer Healthcare, said the
treatment would be made available at a lower price in China than in other
countries because of the financial difficulties that many patients here
face and the lack of a comprehensive health insurance scheme.
Recombinant-clotting factor will cost no more than 5 yuan (65 cents) in
China, Zhang said. The average international price is 30 yuan.
A?unit of factor VIII currently costs more than 1 yuan in China. In case
of a hemorrhage, 1,000 units are required to stop a potentially fatal
bout of bleeding.
Chu Yuguang, a Beijing-based hemophiliac and the director of the
Hemophilia Home of China, a volunteer group of more than 3,000 patients,
applauded the plan to import recombinant-clotting factor, describing it
as as a timely measure by the government.
"However, many patients cannot even afford locally made factor VIII, let
alone the much more expensive import," Chu said.
In another development, recombinant-clotting factor donated by Bayer
Healthcare, enough for roughly 650 patients, is on its way from the US to
China and should arrive at six Chinese hospitals next week, Zhang said.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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