China Expands National Insurance List With 114 New Medicines for 2025

China’s National Healthcare Security Administration has added 114 new medicines to the national reimbursement drug list for 2025, marking a major expansion of insurance coverage for essential treatments.

The updated list helps close significant gaps in basic medical insurance and sharply lowers costs for medicines used to treat triple-negative breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and other serious diseases.

Patients suffering from rare conditions such as Langerhans cell histiocytosis and chelator-intolerant thalassemia, as well as those with chronic illnesses including diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia and autoimmune diseases, will also benefit from the expanded coverage.

The revised reimbursement list will come into effect on January 1, extending enhanced health protection to millions across the country.

According to the administration, 88 percent of candidate medicines were successfully included this year, compared with 76 percent last year.

To promote innovation, 50 of the newly added medicines are Category 1 innovative drugs, representing original and globally first therapies.

The administration has also launched a commercial health insurance innovative drug directory, featuring 19 high-cost medicines not covered by the basic insurance fund. This includes CAR-T cancer therapies, treatments for rare diseases such as neuroblastoma and Gaucher disease, and drugs for Alzheimer’s disease.

Following the latest update, China’s reimbursement list now includes 3,253 medicines, comprising 1,857 Western chemical drugs and 1,396 proprietary Chinese medicines. Coverage has expanded notably in oncology, chronic disease care, mental health, rare diseases and paediatric treatment.

Khaborwala/SS