Seth Zhang, founder and CEO of MediTrust Health, delivers a speech in Shanghai on May 21. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The sales volume of China's innovative drugs and medical devices surged in 2025, while commercial insurance has become an important driving force in building a multi-level medical security system, according to a recent white paper.
The white paper, jointly issued by China Re Life and MediTrust Health on May 21, forecasts that the sales volume of China's innovative drugs would reach 195 billion yuan ($28.7 billion), growing significantly compared to that of last year. Basic medical insurance — as the main source of innovative drug and equipment payments in China — would have an expenditure of approximately 90.5 billion yuan. By 2025, the payment scale of commercial health insurance for innovative drugs and medical devices would reach 15.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23 percent.
The driving force for payment growth of commercial health insurance comes from the increasing proportion of people with illnesses among the insured population of commercial health insurance. The healthy insured group is gradually transforming into innovative drug and equipment users as they age and their diseases progress, experts said.
