BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China will expand national health insurance coverage for innovative drugs used to treat cancer, chronic and rare diseases, and childhood illnesses, with the goal of easing the financial burden on patients and their families.

A nurse prepares medicine for patients at the inpatient department of a hospital in Changde, central China's Hunan Province, May 12, 2024. (Photo: Xinhua)

Since 2018, China has added 949 medicines to its national health insurance drug list, including 199 innovative drugs, Li Tao, deputy head of the National Healthcare Security Administration, said at a news conference on Friday.

The administration plans to expand the range of innovative drugs covered by commercial health insurance. It will encourage commercial insurers to step in first to cover drugs that are not included in the basic health insurance program but offer significant clinical benefits and address important medical needs.

It will also shorten approval timelines and help bring pharmaceutical innovations into clinical use more quickly, Li said.

China's innovative pharmaceutical sector has grown rapidly in recent years. By 2025, China accounted for about 30 percent of the global biopharma pipeline, up from just 2 percent a decade earlier, and about one-fifth of global licensing deals, according to McKinsey research.

In the first half of 2026, the total value of China's innovative drug out-licensing deals reached a record high of more than 100 billion U.S. dollars, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.