On January 11, Fosun Kate and Chenshi Health, a health management and comprehensive patient service platform under Sinopharm Holdings, jointly launched the first lymphoma pay-per-therapeutic value plan for Ekeda in China. Eligible patients who fail to achieve complete remission (CR) after treatment with Ekeda, a CAR-T treatment that originally cost $1.2 million, will receive a rebate of up to RMB600,000. The program will be China's first innovative payment model for lymphoma drugs paid by the value of efficacy, and Ekeda will be China's first bioinnovative drug paid by the value of efficacy.

"If the complete remission indicator is not reached at three months, even if there is efficacy but the efficacy is not as good as complete remission, half of their out-of-pocket drug purchase price will still be refunded under the program. If this patient's medication is completely self-funded, then the maximum return is 600,000 RMB for the medication. If the patient has participated in an insurance program such as Hu Huibao, he will receive a refund of half of the 350,000 RMB out-of-pocket drug costs after the insurance claim if the out-of-pocket drug costs are 700,000 RMB, which will greatly reduce the cost of the entire treatment." Wang Xiangning, senior commercial access director of Fosun Kate Biotechnology Co. further explained to the People's Daily Health Client reporter.

"CAR-T therapy has certain characteristics, based on which we have launched such a program after multiple clinical and pharmacoeconomic discussions and repeated projections." Qi Yuanyuan, who is in charge of the program at Fosun Kate, said that Ekeda is the CAR-T product with the most and largest sample size of real-world research data in the world, and it is also the CAR-T product with the longest follow-up time at present. There are more than 10,000 cases of data in the world, and as the first CAR-T cell therapy product approved in China, Ekaida has achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1 in the domestic cell therapy field, and has become the only CAR-T cell therapy product approved for second-line indications in China. As of 2023, Ekeda has successfully treated over 600 patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma.

"In addition, the program is also based on clearer criteria for complete remission of lymphoma." Qi Yuanyuan explained that Ekeda China's first lymphoma pay-for-value program will strictly refer to the 2014 Edition of the Lugano Assessment Criteria (the latest international authoritative standard for lymphoma efficacy assessment) to assess complete remission (CR) results.

"The standard for complete remission is quite high, and not achieving complete remission does not indicate a lack of efficacy, and, Fosun Kate will join hands with various parties, including clinical experts, the Health Commission, Treatment Demonstration Centers, and other governmental and healthcare institutions, to discuss and establish the criteria for a cure." For his part, Qi Yuanyuan told reporters that the three-month assessment is also based on the statistical results of previous cases, and that for patients, earlier judgment can help alleviate the financial burden of treatment sooner.

"As a brand under the State Pharmaceuticals, Chenshi Health considers more public welfare, and it is also based on the project supporter Fosun Kate has great confidence in the efficacy of its own product Yikaida, we launched the 'Yik Peer, Healing Accessible' program, which gives full consideration to the patient's medication scenarios. It can be used in parallel with other insurances such as HUHI, and fully self-funded patients can be enrolled conveniently to allay their concerns, in order to make it possible for more patients to start their necessary treatments more quickly." Wang Zhengjue, Deputy General Manager of Sinopharm's Innovation Center, said.

Professor Xuan Jianwei, Director of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Economics, School of Pharmacy, Sun Yat-sen University, and Associate Professor Wang Pei, School of Public Health, Fudan University, recognized the program from the perspective of pharmacoeconomics, and believed that Ekeda's Value-Based Payment Program is a patient-centered and value-based innovative payment model that integrates multi-dimensional considerations of clinical, economic, social, and patient value and is supported by pharmacoeconomics demonstrations. The program is a patient-centered and value-based innovative payment model. It provides an innovative solution for the market access and payment method of "high-value drugs" with curative properties, and jointly explores the efficacy payment model and establishes the industry standard with the government, medical institutions, experts and patients, which will ultimately promote the transformation of the medical industry into a value-oriented one, and lead the treatment of lymphoma in China into a new era.

"The Payment by Efficacy Value Program lays a solid guarantee of therapeutic medication value for patients using Ekeda, and fully reflects the company's firm confidence in product quality and efficacy value." Zhang Wenjie, Chairman of Fosun Kite, said that Fosun Kite has established more than 160 EKEDA high-standard treatment centers in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and cities across China, and has promoted the inclusion of CAR-T cell therapy products into more than 100 city benefit insurance programs, as well as more than 75 commercial health insurance programs, so that the innovative therapies of cellular therapy can further benefit more patients. We will continue to explore and improve related programs.

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