Xinwei VS Gleevec
The imatinib mesylate is originally developed by Novartis, and indicated for chronic myelogenous leukemia and malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Novartis’ Gleevec entered the Chinese market in 2002, and became off-patent in China in April 2013. Thereafter, the generic drugs of Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises have been successively marketed: Jiangsu Hansoh first marketed Xinwei in 2013, followed by Chia Tai Tianqing’s Genike, and CSPC’s Nuolining, breaking the situation of only Gleevec on the Chinese imatinib market.
However, Gleevec still dominates the imatinib market in China, as seen from the public medical institution terminal. According to the HDM system data, the imatinib market reached RMB 427 million on the public hospital market of key cities in China in 2016, wherein, Gleevec accounted for 83.87%; Xinwei had the highest proportion among the relevant generic drugs, accounting for 12.31% hospital market, Genike and Nuolining separately accounted for 3.63% and 0.19%. The drug use of imatinib is expected to exceed RMB 2 billion market size in China in 2017.
One of the most-watched events of the Chinese imatinib market in 2017 was the competition for entering China’s national medical insurance drug catalog: both Xinwei, currently with the highest sales among relevant generic drugs, and the original drug Gleevec successfully entered the new-edition national medical insurance drug catalog of China, and the reimbursement proportion of Gleevec can reach about 80% after being included in the category B list.
Besides China’s national medical insurance drug catalog, both Gleevec and Xinwei have entered the provincial medical insurance drug catalogs of Hebei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Yunnan, and Xinjiang, etc., which will continue to drive the growth. From previous data, Gleevec still strongly dominated the markets of big drug consuming provinces such as Guangdong and Zhejiang, however, Xinwei had violent growth momentum, and still had big room for future growth.
Medical Insurance Coverage Situation in Major Provinces










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