(Yicai) Sept. 30 -- China's top drugs regulator has given the green light to the world's first innovative treatment targeting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a persistent inflammatory lung condition that makes it difficult to breathe.

The National Medical Products Administration approved Dupixent as an add-on maintenance treatment for adults with uncontrolled COPD characterized by raised levels of eosinophil white blood cells, French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, the drug’s developer, announced on Sept. 27.

COPD is a life-threatening disease that damages the lungs and causes a progressive decline in lung function. Symptoms include persistent cough, excessive mucus production, and shortness of breath that may impair the ability to perform daily activities.

Originally developed for conditions such as asthma and eczema, Dupixent is a biologic therapy that targets specific pathways involved in inflammation, offering a more personalized and potentially more effective approach than existing COPD treatments.

“The approval of Dupixent for COPD in China is critical, as it fills a gap in targeted therapy for the disease and provides clinicians with a new treatment approach," said Kang Jian, chairman of Sanofi's Chinese branch.

“This offers new hope for COPD patients who remain inadequately controlled even after triple therapy, as well as those who care for them,” Kang said.

There are about 100 million COPD patients in China, with a prevalence rate of over 27 percent among people aged 60 and above. COPD is the third leading cause of death in China, with nearly one million deaths per year, Chen Rongchang, director of the Shenzhen Institute of Respiratory Diseases, told Yicai.

China has the highest number of COPD-related deaths in the world, according to the COPD Index released by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. The economic burden on Chinese patients is also high, with the economic cost per person amounting to USD942.

On Sept. 13, COPD became the third chronic disease to be included in China's basic public health program, following hypertension and diabetes. The country is also accelerating the approval and market entry of novel therapies for COPD.

Editor: Futura Costaglione