(Yicai) Sept. 6 -- China's National Medical Products Administration has accepted the request of Novo Nordisk to review the Danish pharmaceuticals giant's application to import its long-term growth hormone treatment into the country, according to the regulator's website.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk's Somapacitan to treat growth hormone deficiency among adults in 2020, its website showed. In April last year, it also approved using the drug to treat GHD children aged 2.5 years and over.

China's growth hormone market is worth almost CNY7 billion (USD987.9 million), according to industry information site Chyxx. The global market stood at about USD3 billion between 2013 and 2019 before increasing to some extent over the next three years thanks to the quick development of the industry in the Asia Pacific region, with China's market growing 13.9 percent to CNY6.8 billion in 2022 from a year earlier.

Multinational pharmaceutical giants, including Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Company, and Roche, occupy most of the global growth hormone market. However, Changchun GeneScience Pharmaceutical, a unit of leading Chinese pharmaceutical firm Changchun High-Tech Industry Group, has been holding more than 70 percent of the market in China for a long time.

Overseas vendors price powder injections about 300 percent higher than their Chinese peers, resulting in domestic firms taking most of the local market, according to Chyxx.

China's growth hormone sector is still seeing many newcomers and growth hormone indications continue to expand, said Xu Kui, chairman of JHM Biopharma. The market is continuously developing, with a huge future application potential, he added.

Chinese pharmaceutical firms have sped up the launch of their growth hormone products overseas. Changchun High-Tech's long-term growth hormone drug may directly enter Phase III clinical trial in the US and strive to hit the market in 2027. Anhui Anke Biotechnology has also accelerated its overseas expansion.

Editor: Martin Kadiev