Cabozantinib’s medical insurance-related situation in China

Cabozantinib is a multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is widely used overseas for the systemic treatment of a variety of solid tumors, including renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, thyroid cancer and some neuroendocrine tumors. Because its mechanism of action involves multiple tumor growth and metastasis-related pathways such as VEGFR, MET, and AXL, cabozantinib has a high academic status in international cancer treatment guidelines. However, from the perspective of mainland China’s drug supervision and medical insurance system, cabozantinib is still “not on the market and not included in medical insurance”.

As of now, the original drug cabozantinib has not yet received marketing approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration, which means that the drug has not entered the public medical system as a regular prescription drug in mainland China. Since it is not on the market, cabozantinib cannot be included in the national medical insurance directory. Neither Class A nor Class B medical insurance covers this drug. Therefore, domestic patients cannot obtain cabozantinib-related cost reductions through medical insurance reimbursement channels.

In the real medical environment, some patients will learn about or use cabozantinib through legal channels in Hong Kong or overseas. However, this type of drug use usually does not fall within the scope of the mainland’s medical insurance settlement system, and the costs must be borne by the patients themselves. Due to the lack of unified official pricing, the price of cabozantinib varies significantly between different regions and channels, which further increases patients' uncertainty about the cost of medication.

It is worth noting that the introduction of innovative anti-tumor drugs in China has accelerated significantly in recent years, and some targeted drugs that were originally only used overseas have gradually entered the Chinese market and been included in medical insurance. However, due to its many indications, long treatment cycle, and complex price system, there are still many uncertainties in the medical insurance path of cabozantinib.

Keyword tags: cabozantinib Health insurance Domestic Marketing Situation Cabozantinib reimbursement policy targeted drug tumor treatment China

Reference:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabozantinib