(Yicai Global) June 20 -- Shares in Grand Pharmaceutical Group surged as much as 5.9 percent today after the Chinese drug developer said that a treatment for colorectal cancer liver metastases developed by a US unit has been approved for sale in China.

Grand Pharma’s share price [HKG:0512] closed up 2.2 percent at HKD4.48 (USD0.57). Earlier in the day it had hit HKD4.64.

Sirtex Medical’s SIR-Spheres is the only targeted radiopharmaceutical medicine for liver tumors caused by colorectal cancer in the world. It was approved to go to market in the US and Europe in 2020 where a course of treatment can cost anywhere in the region of CNY200,000 (USD29,960).

Although the China pricing was not announced, company sources told Yicai Global that Wuhan-based Grand Pharma is exploring partnerships with local insurance firms to find ways to reduce the cost for patients. Only top-level hospitals in the country’s major cities have the facilities to administer the drug.

Doctors’ accurate application of SIR-Spheres can effectively control intermediate-stage and terminal liver cancer in patients, said Dong Jiahong, head of Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital. It might even allow some patients to have curative surgery in the form of liver resection or liver transplants.

Grand Pharma together with investment holding firm CDH Genetech bought Massachusetts-based Sirtex Medical and the rights to its Sir-Spheres drug in 2018 for AUD1.9 billion (USD1.3 billion).

There were more than 550,000 new cases of colorectal cancer and over 280,000 colorectal cancer-related deaths in China in 2020, according to data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Between 30 to 50 percent of colorectal cancer patients develop liver tumors.

Editor: Kim Taylor