BEIJING — China has seen robust growth in its number of new anti-tumor drug approvals during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) period, according to the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).

The number increased from two in 2015 to 38 in 2020, said Yang Zhimin with the Center for Drug Evaluation of the NMPA at a recently concluded conference on cancer and health. Of the newly approved drugs during the period, nearly 40 percent were domestically developed.

China will continue to deepen the reform of drug approval, she said, adding that the NMPA is exploring a new model for drug approval based on molecular biological characteristics, which is more efficient than the conventional disease-based model.