A drug for curing hepatitis B, made in China by global
pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, will go on sale in pharmacies
in the Chinese mainland this month.
Heptodin, one of the major drugs produced by GlaxoSmithKline, has
been approved for sale on the mainland, according to a corporate
executive for Asia and Pacific operations with the company at a
news briefing held over the weekend in Guangzhou, capital of
Guangdong Province.
Chinese patients suffering from hepatitis B previously relied on
imported heptodin to cure their disease, but the cost of the
medicine was high: 266 yuan (about US$32.1) for 100 tablets of
heptodin.
GlaxoSmithKline spent 1.2 billion yuan (about US$145 million) to
build a heptodin production base in Suzhou Industrial Park, east
China's Jiangsu Province.
With the localization, the retail price for 100-tablet boxes of
heptodin go down to 242 yuan (about US$29.2), said sources from the
news briefing.
Hepatitis B, which has been listed by the World Health Organization
(WHO) as one of the world's nine major fatal diseases, is mainly
transmitted via blood transmission and body fluid.
Guangdong ranks first in China, with the hepatitis B incidence rate
amounting to 17.85 percent.
(Xinhua News
Agency November 13, 2001)