Malignant melanoma medication is to be conditionally admitted under the National Health Insurance program (NHI), the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced yesterday, adding that people with late-stage cancer might become eligible for cell therapy treatment starting next month.
The ministry in June announced draft regulations for the use of specific medical equipment for examinations, including equipment used for cellular immunotherapy.
The ministry voted on the draft and passed it on Friday, and it is to be on the agenda at a regenerative medicine consultative meeting tomorrow.
If approved tomorrow, the regulations will be cleared for promulgation by September, Department of Medical Affairs Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said.
Immunotherapy is generally divided into cellular and antibody therapies, of which only the latter is legal in Taiwan, Shih said.
Once cellular immunotherapy is made legal, it would offer more choices, Shih added.
Cellular immunotherapy seeks to direct the body’s immune system to target tumor-associated antigens, Shih said.
The cellular immunotherapy option to be introduced will only allow the use of the patient’s own immune system cells, Shih said, adding that this is safer for patients.
Cellular immunotherapy can also be applied to hematological malignancies, such as leukemia and multiple myeloma, and to terminal-stage lung and stomach cancers, Shih said.
According to ministry estimates, about 80,000 terminal stage cancer patients could benefit from immunotherapy each year, Shih added.
Previous lack of immunotherapy methods led many terminal-stage patients to seek medical treatment in Japan or the US, Shih said, adding that if the draft act is promulgated as expected, people will be given more treatment options.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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