TEVA Pharmaceutical said Monday that China has given the go-ahead to its Austedo treatment for Huntington’s disease.

Israel-based Teva’s chief executive Kare Schultz said Austedo would be priced somewhat lower in China, the world’s second-largest drug market, than in the United States, which has already approved the drug.

However, it will not yet be eligible for coverage under China’s national insurance program, which means it will only be affordable initially to a limited number of patients.

Austedo was included in China’s fast-tracked approval channel as a rare disease treatment of “significant clinical advantage,” completing the process in four months. China is the second country after the United States to approve Austedo.

Teva said the drug has been approved in China to alleviate uncontrollable movements known as chorea in patients with Huntington’s disease, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder that often appears in middle age, and for tardive dyskinesia, a movement disorder that is usually the result of treatment with certain psychiatric medications.

Austedo, which is expected to generate U.S. sales of US$650 million this year, costs around US$60,000 annually per patient in the United States before insurance coverage, Schultz said.

Austedo needs to be significantly cheaper than US$60,000 a year to be affordable to most patients in China, where major commercial insurance programs are yet to cover Huntington’s disease, said Cao Xi, who runs Hyacinth Care, a Shanghai-based non-profit organization dedicated to the disease. (SD-Agencies)