FILE PHOTO: Swiss drugmaker Novartis’ logo is seen at the company’s plant in the northern Swiss town of Stein, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis’s Gilenya multiple sclerosis drug has won approval in China, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday, as the company expands further into the world’s most-populous country’s growing healthcare sector.
Nearly a decade after its U.S. approval, Gilenya remains Novartis’s No. 2 revenue generator at $825 million in the second quarter. The Basel-based company is defending patents on Gilenya in the United States to block generic rivals, while eying countries including China to expand the medicine’s international sales.
Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Thomas Seythal