The approval of China's second CAR-T therapy has come amid reimbursement challenges, despite the pricing of its direct competitor being much lower than in the US. Chinese developers are pinning their hopes on rapid domestic market expansion via commercial insurance tie-ups as other CAR-Ts move through local development.

Despite a pending domestic approval for BioNTech/Fosun's COVID-19 vaccine, China’s apparent belief in another, domestically developed, mRNA vaccine sees a large group of investors pour hundreds of millions into a little-known private bioventure founded by an ex-Moderna scientist and poised to take on the US biotech.

Confounding earlier speculation, the Fosun-Kite joint venture rather than Juno-WuXi AppTec, gains the first CAR-T cell therapy approval in China. The clearance is expected to be followed by several others in the highly active area.

Confounding earlier speculation, the first CAR-T cell therapy to gain approval in China is from the Fosun-Kite joint venture rather than Juno-WuXi AppTec. But pricing and market competition challenges are just beginning.