Shanghai · cross-border CAR-T coordination
Find out whether CAR-T in Shanghai is a real option — before you spend money finding out.
We prepare your records, get a written answer from a hospital international department, and put the cost and timeline on one page. Fixed fees. You pay the hospital directly. We take no commission on treatment — and we do not practise medicine.
Ten minutes, no obligation. For patients in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. If your case is one you can take to a hospital yourself, we will say so and point you at the door.
Free
Pre-screen
US$350
Written review
5 days
Review turnaround
The gap
The funded pathway ends. The disease does not.
NZ$700,000 – 900,000
What private CAR-T is quoted at for New Zealand patients. There is no publicly funded pathway here and no private CAR-T infusion service, so this range reflects private treatment in Australia including travel. Most families cannot write that cheque.
No charge, if selected
Registered clinical research in China cannot charge participants. A place is not a product and cannot be bought; the hospital decides who is eligible.
A gap that large is worth investigating carefully — and worth being sceptical about. The Chinese pathway is not a cheaper version of the New Zealand pathway. It has different eligibility rules, different products, different risks, and a long trip attached. Our job is to get you a written answer instead of a rumour.
The old low-price route is gone. Before 2026, “investigational” quotes of US$40,000–60,000 often reflected hospital-led research. China’s 818 rules now prohibit charging research participants any research-related fee. We do not sell research places; if a hospital offers you a study, it does so directly and free of charge.
Regulatory update · 2026
Clinical research in China cannot be bought.
China's 818 rules (State Council Order No. 818), in force 1 May 2026, prohibit charging participants in clinical research: no research fee, no cost recovery, and no “investigational” package under any name. We do not sell, reserve, or price research places. If a hospital considers you for a registered study, it approaches you directly and no research fee is payable. A sub-US$100,000 “investigational” quote should now be treated as a red flag, not a bargain.
What this means for the cost comparisonWhat you get
Three deliverables, in order.
Nothing is charged until you have seen the previous step. The review fee is credited against the coordination fee if you decide to go ahead.
01
FreeA pre-screen answer
Ten minutes of questions, a human read, and a straight answer within two business days on whether a full review is worth your money.
02
US$350An administrative records review
A records screener — not a physician — compares your file with hospitals’ published criteria. You get two hospital options, an indicative cost, the records they will want, and the hospital’s own written position — the clinical answer, signed by their physicians.
03
If you proceedCoordination, start to handover
Hospital liaison, scheduling, interpreting, payment routing, and an English discharge summary with a handover to your own doctors at home.
The boundary
What we are not.
Medical travel attracts operators who are vague about this. Here is our version, in writing, before you talk to us.
We are not your doctor
Every clinical decision — eligibility, product choice, dosing, whether you can travel — is made by the treating physicians in Shanghai and is signed by them. We organise, translate, and chase; we do not diagnose or give clinical opinions.
We do not sell or ship medicines
No drug purchase, no courier, no import. Medical fees are invoiced by the hospital and paid by you directly to the hospital.
We are not paid by hospitals
Our only revenue is the fee you agree to. No commission on the treatment price, no per-patient referral payments, no undisclosed interests.
We do not sell research places
Clinical research in China is free to participants under the 818 rules. We do not broker, reserve, or charge for a place in a study, and we will not take a coordination fee that is really a price of admission to research.
We cannot promise an outcome
A hospital's written opinion is an opinion. Response rates, complications, and cost overruns happen. If a hospital declines your case, we refund the review fee in full.
Process
Five steps, and the fifth is the one people forget.
Getting to Shanghai is the middle of the story. Coming home with your records, your medication plan, and a clinician at home who knows what happened is the end of it.
The full process, including what can go wrong- 01
Free pre-screen
10 minutesTen minutes of questions. We tell you whether a paid records review can take your case further — and if it cannot, we say so.
- 02
Records and administrative eligibility
5 business daysA records screener — not a physician — checks completeness and compares your file with the hospital's published criteria. The eligibility decision is the hospital's, in writing.
- 03
Hospital opinion
1–2 weeksWe put the case to one or two international departments and get a written answer on eligibility, cost, and timeline.
- 04
Decision and plan
1 weekOne page: what it costs, what we handle, what you handle, when to fly. You decide with your family, not with a salesperson.
- 05
Travel and handover
6–8 weeks on the groundIn-country coordination, an English discharge summary, and a handover to your own doctors before you fly home.
Straight answer
Can you do this without us?
Yes, and some patients do. Chinese hospitals accept direct enquiries from international patients. The honest question is not “can you” but “what will it cost you in time, and what will you miss”.
Going direct tends to work when
- You or a family member can handle Chinese-language email and phone calls.
- Your case is straightforward and one hospital has already said it is interested.
- You can travel with a companion and stay for two months.
- You have time to chase paperwork between time zones.
A coordinator earns the fee when
- Records need translating and reformatting before any hospital will read them.
- You want a written clinical opinion before committing a five-figure sum.
- Two or three hospitals need comparing on eligibility, price, and waiting time.
- You need an itemised invoice and a payment route your bank will accept.
If the first list describes you, the pre-screen will tell you so. We would rather lose a fee than sell coordination to someone who does not need it — the whole point of this experiment is to find out whether the fee is earned.
Pricing
Published, fixed, and not a percentage.
Commission on the treatment price is how this industry gets distorted. We do not take it. The hospital invoices you; we invoice you separately for coordination.
Pre-screen
Free
10-minute questionnaire, human read, answer within two business days.
Start the pre-screenWritten review
US$350
Administrative records review against published criteria, two hospital options, indicative cost and timeline, and the hospital's own written position where one can be obtained. Credited against coordination if you proceed.
Review the deliverableCoordination
US$15,000 – US$30,000
Fixed scope, three milestone payments, each tied to a deliverable. Medical fees, flights, and accommodation are separate and paid at cost.
See what is includedWhat exactly does LukeBridge do?
We coordinate. LukeBridge is a cross-border coordination and medical-travel assistance company registered in Shanghai, China. We check your records for administrative completeness, coordinate their translation, submit them to hospital international departments, chase written answers, and then run the logistics: appointments, admission, payment routing, interpreting, and the handover back to your own doctors. We are not a hospital, clinic, or medical practice, and we do not diagnose or treat.
Is CAR-T in China approved — and can I pay for a research pathway?
The pathway matters. Several CAR-T products are approved by China's NMPA for specific indications and are sold commercially. Separately, hospitals run registered clinical research under the 818 rules. Since 1 May 2026, those studies may not charge participants any research-related fee: no “investigational” package and no cost recovery. We do not sell, reserve, or broker research places. The hospital decides in writing which pathway applies to you. If a hospital offers you a study, it will do so directly and free of charge; if anyone quotes you a price for a research slot, ask for the approval that allows them to charge, and walk away if there is not one.
Who is this for?
Patients from New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada with relapsed or refractory blood cancers, where the funded options at home are exhausted or unavailable. What public funding covers differs sharply: CAR-T is publicly funded for eligible patients in Australia and the UK, insurer-dependent in the US, and publicly funded in several Canadian provinces under strict eligibility, with coverage and wait times that vary by province. New Zealand has no publicly funded CAR-T pathway. Establishing what is actually available to you at home is the first thing we do.
How is my health information handled?
Under the PRC Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), with the mandatory privacy rights of your home country preserved where they cannot be excluded. Health information is sensitive personal information under PIPL: we ask for your separate, explicit consent (Article 29) and a separate consent to store it outside mainland China (Article 39). Records go to a hospital only after a second, hospital-specific consent that names the hospital. Our privacy notice sets out every transfer, retention period, and complaint route.
LukeBridge is not a medical provider. We coordinate records, hospital introductions, and in-country logistics. We do not diagnose, treat, prescribe, or supply medicines, and no doctor–patient relationship is created. Every clinical decision is made by the hospital’s physicians. Full compliance notice.
Who you are dealing with
The registered operator, in public.
We are a Shanghai-registered company, not an anonymous inbox. These are the particulars a consumer regulator would expect to see before money changes hands; they are repeated in the footer of every page and in the terms.
- Registered name(企业名称)
- LukeBridge (Shanghai)
- Unified Social Credit Code(统一社会信用代码)
- Not yet published
- Registered address(注册地址)
- Shanghai, People's Republic of China — street address not yet published
- Telephone(联系电话)
- Not yet published
- Responsible person(负责人)
- Not yet published
Do not pay us until the missing details above are published. We are completing publication of our registered particulars. Before any payment, ask for our business licence, the signed service agreement and the hospital’s written estimate. You can also email care@lukebridge.com and we will send them.
UK GDPR Article 27 representative
Not yet published. If you are in the UK, email care@lukebridge.com before you send any health information, and we will confirm whether a representative is in place for your enquiry.
Start with the free step
Ten minutes now beats a five-figure decision made on a forum thread.
We will tell you what we can and cannot find out, and whether your case is one where the fee is worth paying.
No card, no obligation, no sales call.