China to allow foreign data in drug approvals

China will allow the use of data from overseas clinical trials for approvals of new drugs, in a move likely to enable multinationals to bring products to the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market more quickly, the Financial Times reports. Pharmaceutical approvals in China can take up to seven years longer than in Europe and the US due to a requirement that overseas trials be at an advanced stage before Chinese trials can begin. The China drugs market generated $117bn in sales last year, according to the QuintilesIMS consultancy. But companies will, in some cases, now be allowed to avoid Chinese trials altogether by using data gathered overseas, the government said on Sunday. The move is seen as a boon to multinational pharmaceutical companies, which have seen slowing revenue growth because of Chinese government pressure on drug pricing. They are hoping to sell more innovative drugs to an increasingly affluent population that is struggling with a fast-growing burden of chronic diseases such as cancer.