BEIJING: The China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) announced on Friday that, to date, it has facilitated 19,000 hematopoietic stem cell donations from unrelated donors since its launch in 2001.
The CMDP, the world’s fourth-largest bone marrow bank, also revealed that its registry of potential stem cell donors had approached nearly 3.49 million.
Hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow are responsible for producing all types of blood cells. Donations from unrelated volunteers can be life-saving for individuals battling blood disorders such as leukemia and sickle cell anemia. As of September, the CMDP has provided human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching services to over 120,000 patients with blood disorders.
Furthermore, the CMDP has steadily expanded its volunteer network over the past years, establishing service teams in 90 percent of prefecture-level administrative regions. Nationwide, the number of registered CMDP volunteers has surpassed 100,000. Meanwhile, A total of 13 rare-disease drugs have been added to the latest edition of China’s medical insurance drug catalog, bringing the total amount of such medicines covered by medical insurance in the country to more than 90.
The newly-added items on the catalog, which was jointly released by the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) and relevant authorities, include drugs for rare diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, intractable epilepsy and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Due to their ultra-low incidence, a limited amount of patients, and high research and development costs, rare diseases have long remained areas of less focus in the healthcare field. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
