No abstract

The China National Formulary (CNF) for reimbursable drug use, also known as the National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL), was formally established in 2000, revised in 2004 and 2009, and covers 52% of China's population under the government urban health insurance programs. A third major and long-awaited update to the formulary was completed in February 2017 based on intensive reviews by a group of experts in medicine, pharmacology, health economics, and health policy. Shortly after this major update, a pilot project at the central government level was implemented for negotiations mainly on innovative but expensive medicines that were still outside the National Formulary. The pilot, conducted between March and July 2017, eventually reached an overall agreement rate of 81.8% regarding approved indications and drug prices between China's government and the pharmaceutical companies. This pilot showcased numerous leading edge features including a working definition of innovative medicines and opportunities to submit dossiers on drug clinical and economic information. This pilot covered 44 medications for negotiations in a breakthrough attempt to increase the appropriate access to innovative but expensive medicines. The implications to the future of the CNF go beyond the drugs included in the pilot. This paper describes the background of the CNF and the negotiation pilot. In addition, authors of this paper make six recommendations critical to CNF future developments, including enhancing criteria and process for evaluations, standardizing the dossier format, specifying data requirements, refining pricing calculation, and cultivating evaluation professional development.

Geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) might predict the all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure (HF). We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the correlation between GNRI and all-cause mortality in patients with HF. METHODS: We searched the PubMed, Medline, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases for clinical trials investigating the association between GNRI and all-cause mortality in patients with HF, having the primary endpoint as all-cause mortality. RESULTS: In total, nine studies involving 7,659 subjects were included in the systematic review and metaanalysis. The results indicated that major risk and moderate risk GNRI (GNRIo92) was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in elderly patients with HF (hazard ratios [HR] 1.59, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.37-1.85). Low risk GNRI (GNRIo98) group predicted all-cause mortality in elderly HF patients (HR 1.56, 95%CI 1.12-2.18) when compared with the high GNRI value group. A subgroup analysis indicated that the relationship between GNRI and HF might differ based on the subtype of heart failure. CONCLUSIONS: GNRI is a simple and well-established nutritional assessment tool to predict all-cause mortality in patients with HF.

Introduction Reliable country-specific incidence and cost data on diabetes-related complications are essential inputs for the projections of the economic burden of diabetes. The aim of this study was to provide patient-level cost estimates of managing and treating complications in patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in China. Methods Patients newly diagnosed with T2DM in the Tianjin Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance Claims database between 2008 and 2015 were identified and followed up. The cumulative incidence and descriptive costs of certain macrovascular and microvascular complications were examined. A generalized estimating equations model was used to estimate the immediate- and long-term costs for the incident complication in quarterly intervals, controlling for demographics and the confounding effects of comorbid complications. Results A total of 114,847 newly diagnosed patients were identified (mean age 56.9 years, 45.5% women). After 7 years, 80.8% of the patients at risk had developed nephropathy and 75.7% had developed neuropathy. The immediate additional costs were highest for myocardial infarction during the quarterly interval that the complication first occurred (China yuan [CNY] 19,633), and the long-term costs were highest for stroke in the quarterly intervals of subsequent years (CNY 1087). The expected costs for all complications were calculated and presented as costs per quarterly interval and per year for different age and sex subgroups. Conclusions Managing complications results in substantial costs to the Chinese healthcare system. Our study contributes towards quantifying the economic burden and supports the parametrization of economic models of diabetes in China. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s13300-020-00967-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The insurance coverage of imatinib is very cost-effective in China, according to the local cost and clinical data in Jiangsu province. More importantly, the insurance coverage of imatinib and nilotinib have changed the treatment patterns of CML patients, thus dramatically increasing life expectancy and quality-of-life (QoL) saving on productivity losses for both CML patients and their caregivers.