Novartis sees local drug market taking off as demand surges

Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG plans to make big inroads into China's oncology market by bringing two new cutting edge cancer drugs to the country, as demand in the country for drugs to treat the disease continues to rise.

The new products launched by Novartis are Votrient and Jakavi, which received approval by the China Food and Drug Administration in the last couple of months. Votrient is for a form of kidney cancer called advanced renal cell carcinoma and the medicine Jakavi is for myelofibrosis, a bone marrow condition.

The approval of the two new drugs is expected to offer more treatment options for Chinese patients, according to the company.