Chinese homegrown medicine for mental disease receives US market approval

A homegrown mental disease medicine from China has received approval for market launch in the United States, marking new progress of domestic pharmaceuticals increasing their presence in global markets.

The US Food and Drug Administration announced earlier this week that it had approved a medicine from Luye Pharma Group for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults and as monotherapy or adjunctive therapy for the maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder in adults. The medicine was developed by Luye Pharma on its own microsphere technology platform.

There were 40 million sufferers of bipolar disorder worldwide in 2019, and currently around 24 million schizophrenia patients, according to the World Health Organization.

In the US, the estimated prevalence of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders ranges between 0.25 percent and 0.64 percent while an estimated 4.4 percent of US adults experience bipolar disorder at some point in their lives, according to the US National Institute of Mental Health. 

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn