2018中国18种抗癌新药获批
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 registration 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 exempted imported medicines from quarantine at border ports so they could reach hospitals and pharmacies as quickly as possible. The approving procedure for imported medicines to enter the Chinese market as well as that for domestic pharmaceutical firms to conduct clinical tests were also simplified.