China has renewed catalog of drugs covered by its national medical insurance system, and the prices of the 121 newly added drugs have dropped 60.1 percent on average, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) on Wednesday.

The anti-COVID drug Azvudine will be officially included in the medical insurance catalog after price reduction, the NHSA said.

The adjustment is expected to reduce the patients' financial burden by more than 90 billion yuan ($13.29 billion) in the next two years.

After the adjustments, the catalog will expand to 2,967 drugs, with 1,586 western medicines and 1,381 Chinese medicines.