China Emerges as a Global Hub for Affordable CAR-T Therapy, Drawing Foreign Patients with Advanced Cancer Care
核心洞察
China is attracting a growing number of foreign patients seeking CAR-T (搜索) cell therapy, driven by significantly lower costs and greater availability compared to Western countries.
A New Zealand myeloma (搜索) patient received CAR-T (搜索) treatment in Shanghai for approximately US$65,000, roughly one-tenth the cost of equivalent therapy in Australia.
China now has seven approved commercial CAR-T (搜索) therapies, matching the US, and leads the world in the number of CAR-T clinical trials.
China is rapidly positioning itself as a global destination for patients seeking cutting-edge, affordable medical care, with CAR-T (搜索) cell therapy emerging as a particularly compelling draw. The country's combination of advanced oncology treatments, significantly lower prices, and expanding clinical trial infrastructure is reshaping the landscape of medical tourism in Asia.
Stuart Lye, a 58-year-old from New Zealand diagnosed with high-risk myeloma (搜索), exemplifies this trend. After exhausting treatment options at home — including chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, and drugs — and facing a prognosis of just three months to live in 2018, Lye turned to China. CAR-T (搜索) therapy was not commercially available in New Zealand, and in Australia, the closest accessible country, the procedure could cost more than A$500,000 (S$450,470). Through a fellow patient's introduction, Lye connected with a Shanghai hospital and, after just 10 days of communication, traveled to China with his wife. Following seven weeks in a clinical trial, his cancer was brought under control. The entire process, including hospital care and airfare, cost approximately US$65,000.
"Looking outside of New Zealand for CAR-T (搜索) was my only option," Lye said. "China was an easy choice as they are at the forefront in research and development, and the treatment is near a 10th of the cost of other countries."
The Economics of CAR-T (搜索) Access
The cost disparity is stark. In the United States, a single CAR-T (搜索) infusion ranges from US$300,000 to US$475,000, according to the American Cancer Society. In China, the equivalent therapy costs approximately US$150,000 to US$180,000, and prices may fall further — the country's drug regulator recently accepted a marketing application for a therapy aimed to be priced below 300,000 yuan (S$57,036).
Victor Cao, operations director of Joyful Medical (搜索), a Shanghai-based agency connecting international patients to advanced cancer therapies in China, identified two primary drivers: "There are two reasons why a patient travels for medical treatments: availability of advanced treatments and price." He added, "Chinese people used to travel overseas for treatments that were not available at home, but now the tables have turned."
China's Growing CAR-T (搜索) Dominance
Although China's first CAR-T (搜索) product was approved only in 2021, the country now has seven approved commercial therapies, matching the United States where the technology originated. China also leads the world in the number of CAR-T clinical trials, according to ClinicalTrials.gov.
SinoUnited Health (搜索), a Shanghai-based healthcare provider, has received approximately 30 foreign patients for CAR-T (搜索) therapy since treating its first in late 2024. Shi Haoying, the group's founder and CEO, said, "The patients chose China for something they can't get at home. I think the growing attention to medical tourism to China is the inevitable result of long-term accumulation and development in many areas, such as growing medical technologies, quality of service and cost-effectiveness."
Foreign patients also benefit from faster access. Demand is lower at China's hundreds of international hospitals because such therapies are often not covered by the national insurance system and remain too expensive for most local patients.
Broader Innovation Landscape
China's medical ambitions extend beyond CAR-T (搜索). By 2024, the country had reached parity with the US in the number of experimental medicines entering clinical testing and completed trials two to five times faster than the US and Europe, according to a McKinsey analysis. In 2024, Chinese doctors used a homegrown cell therapy to treat children with lupus (搜索). In 2025, the country carried out Asia's first cross-species kidney transplant, and in March, it became the world's first country to approve a brain implant for commercial use in people with spinal cord injuries.
Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, noted, "Many new treatments, including in very advanced areas, are made in China but too advanced for the state of its healthcare system and the ability of its patients to pay for these things. It's in China's interest to integrate into the international system."
Regulatory Evolution and Safety Concerns
The rapid expansion has not been without controversy. Allowing desperate patients to participate in clinical trials for a fee raises concerns about profit being prioritized over safety. The field of cell therapy remains haunted by the 2016 death of a student who spent over 200,000 yuan on an experimental cell therapy for a rare tissue cancer.
Jacob Becraft, co-founder and CEO of Strand Therapeutics (搜索), a Boston-based biotechnology company, expressed caution: "Personally, I would certainly have reservations about rushing off to get into a clinical trial in China. But China has incentivised many clinical trials and, for a lot of patients, that's the only option."
In May 2025, China began banning hospitals from charging patients fees related to clinical research. Simultaneously, it allowed qualified hospitals to commercialize advanced procedures such as cell therapies, brain-computer interfaces, and xenotransplantation without requiring traditional drug registration.
Zhao Bing, a healthcare analyst at China Renaissance Securities (搜索), explained that the new rules follow "years of concerns over a grey market of unapproved and insufficiently regulated cell therapies." He added, "The regulations are intended to shift China's emerging medical technologies from a period of rapid, loosely supervised expansion toward stronger oversight and regulatory compliance."
Market Growth and Remaining Challenges
China's medical tourism market remains nascent. The Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in Hainan, designated as the country's only special medical zone in 2013, treated just a few thousand foreign medical tourists last year, compared to hundreds of thousands of domestic patients. Globally, the medical tourism market is estimated at around US$34 billion and expected to reach US$126 billion by 2035, according to Grand View Research. China's sector is projected to grow from US$1.3 billion in 2025 to US$3.4 billion by 2035, according to Market Research Future.
Significant barriers persist. China's healthcare system was not historically designed around foreign patients, leaving services fragmented. The country lacks a dedicated medical visa scheme, and patients on Facebook groups such as "CAR-T (搜索) Cell Therapy Group" routinely seek advice on logistics including visas, payment systems like Alipay, and language barriers.
Zhao Bing noted, "Why has Thailand been able to develop medical tourism successfully? It had tourism first, and then medical tourism. Even foreigners who have lived in China for years still encounter many inconveniences in daily life, so travelling to China for serious treatments will unlikely become mainstream anytime soon."
For patients like Stuart Lye, however, the decision has been life-changing. Now living quietly with his family in Hamilton, New Zealand, his monthly blood tests show stable results. He works part-time as a school caretaker, plays golf, and has become a point of contact for other patients considering similar treatment in China. "It is not a cure," he said. "But if I need to and if there is the opportunity, I would go back to China to do it again."