Is tepotinib included in medical insurance?

Tepotinib is a once-daily, highly selective methionine tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). ), has established clinical activity in patients with methionine-driven tumors and is a blood-brain barrier penetrant (25% of tepotinib in plasma is able to cross into the brain). Based on the results of the VISION study, tepotinib became the first drug approved in Japan for advanced non-small cell lung cancer that skips METex14 in March 2020, and was subsequently approved in the United States, the European Union and other places.

MET exon 14 (METex14) skipping is an oncogenic driver that occurs in 3–4% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases and defines a patient population that would benefit from targeted MET inhibitors. Concomitant driver alterations are less common, and compared with NSCLC patients harboring other oncogenic drivers, this patient population is typically older, has a more even gender distribution, has a higher proportion of patients with a history of smoking, and expresses high levels of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Up to about 40% of METex14-skipped NSCLC cases also involve brain lesions.

The original drug Tepotinib is a new type of drug that has not yet been marketed in China, so it has not been included in the medical insurance. Domestic patients cannot yet purchase this drug in pharmacies or hospitals. The price of Tepotinib's original drug specification 225mg*30 tablets per box is around RMB 80,000 per box (the price may fluctuate due to exchange rate effects). It has been on the market for a short time and is expensive. There are also generic Tepotinib drugs produced in other countries. The price of a box of 225mg*60 tablets produced by a Lao pharmaceutical factory is around RMB 8,600 (the price may fluctuate due to the exchange rate). The ingredients of generic drugs produced abroad are basically the same as those of the original drug. For specific prices and drug details, please consult Yaode’s medical consultant.