China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved 18 new cancer medicines in 2018, up 157 percent on 2017, said an NMPA official Tuesday.

 

中国国家药品监督管理局一位官员周二表示，2018年有18种抗癌新药获批准，比2017年增长157%。

 

Cancer medicines accounted for 37.5 percent of the total new medicines approved in 2018, "a notable increase over previous years," said Wang Ping, chief of the division of medicine registration¹ under the NMPA, at a press conference.

 

"It takes 12 months on average for a new anti-cancer medicine to be approved by the NMPA, down from 24 months before 2018," Wang said.

 

Last year the Chinese government adopted a series of measures to speed up the approval of imported and domestically-developed cancer medicines.

 

According to Wang, the government exempted² imported medicines from quarantine at border ports so they could reach hospitals and pharmacies³ as quickly as possible. The approving procedure for imported medicines to enter the Chinese market as well as that for domestic pharmaceutical⁴ firms to conduct clinical tests were also simplified.

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