US pharmaceutical company Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK), known as MSD outside the US and Canada, announced on Friday that the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in China has approved WELIREG (belzutifan) for the treatment of adult patients with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease.

WELIREG is a first-in-class oral hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2α) inhibitor and is the first and only approved therapy of its kind in China. The approval was based on data from the Phase 2 LITESPARK-004 trial.

VHL disease is a rare genetic disorder that can lead to the development of various tumours. WELIREG offers a non-surgical treatment option for patients with VHL disease-associated renal cell carcinoma, central nervous system haemangioblastomas or pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours.

This decision marks the 17th approval of WELIREG globally.