The pharmaceutical industry is a special livelihood industry with high technological content and large investment in research and development. It is necessary to ensure that the enterprise has a certain profit in order to continue to "save lives and heal the wounded." Regulatory wisdom.
Patients can buy relatively low-priced drugs, not only relying on the conscience of the company, but also inseparable from the regulatory authorities to maintain market order.
Strengthening anti-monopoly law enforcement is crucial to ensuring the healthy development of my country's pharmaceutical market and improving people's livelihood and well-being.
A pharmaceutical company has insisted on selling the antipyretic drug paracetamol at the price of 2 yuan and 20 tablets for many years; the same company was fined 133 million yuan for monopoly—recently, two hot searches related to Northeast Pharmaceuticals have been circulated on the Internet , Praise and punishment appear almost at the same time, which can be called the "red and black" version of pharmaceutical companies.
It is worth noting that in online discussions, some articles try to link anti-monopoly penalties with low-price sales of drugs, which is not true: Northeast Pharmaceuticals was fined because between November 2018 and June 2019, Abusing its dominant position in the levocarnitine API market in China, it implemented the behavior of selling levocarnitine API at unfairly high prices, which violated the anti-monopoly law.
One size counts for one size. It is commendable for companies to sell paracetamol at a conscientious price, but they should be fined for illegally selling levocarnitine raw materials at high prices. The two should not be confused.
my country is the world's largest producer and exporter of APIs.
The API market is highly concentrated, and often one upstream manufacturer supplies thousands of downstream pharmaceutical companies.
According to public information, there are about 1,500 kinds of raw materials for finished medicines in my country, of which only 1 company can produce 50 kinds of raw materials, only 2 companies can produce 44 kinds of raw materials, and only 3 companies can produce 40 kinds of raw materials. Production.
Due to the rigid market demand, high concentration, and high market entry threshold of some APIs and preparations, monopoly behaviors occur from time to time, but because APIs do not directly face consumers, the public does not know much about monopoly behaviors and their harm in this field .
In fact, the monopolistic behavior in the field of APIs is often more aggressive than terminal pharmacies and distributors in driving up prices, and the harm is more hidden and greater.
Taking Northeast Pharmaceuticals as an example, the source of this punishment can be traced back to 2018. Someone publicly reported on the Internet that the pharmaceutical company, as the only levocarnitine raw material manufacturer at that time, was suspected of price monopoly, making the price of levocarnitine raw material from The price rose from 700 yuan/kg to 8,000 yuan/kg, which limited the production of downstream manufacturers and even caused out-of-stock.
This is an important reason why the regulatory authorities are determined to take action.
In recent years, the anti-monopoly work in the field of raw materials has been going on, silently guarding and guaranteeing the drug needs of hundreds of millions of patients.
In the monopoly case of calcium gluconate raw materials investigated and dealt with by the State Administration for Market Regulation in 2020, the price of calcium gluconate raw materials was once abnormally high by 54 times.
In the end, the State Administration for Market Regulation imposed penalties on three raw material drug distribution companies for their monopolistic behavior in accordance with the law, with a total of 325.5 million yuan fined and confiscated.
In 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation fined Simcere Pharmaceuticals 100.7 million yuan for its abuse of market dominance, and imposed a huge fine of 764 million yuan on Yangzijiang Pharmaceuticals for its implementation of monopoly agreements.
According to media reports at the time, after the punishment, the sales price of calcium gluconate raw materials fell from 2184 yuan/kg at the peak to 200 yuan/kg, a drop of 90%; the average price of calcium gluconate injection dropped by 40%, and it is estimated that the annual savings National medical insurance expenditures exceeded 1 billion yuan; after the Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical monopoly case was punished, the price of Lanqin Oral Liquid dropped by more than 30%.
A series of cases have shown that patients can buy relatively low-priced medicines, not only relying on the conscience of the company, but also inseparable from the heavy blows of the regulatory authorities to maintain market order.
Strengthening anti-monopoly law enforcement is crucial to ensuring the healthy development of my country's pharmaceutical market, maintaining a fair competition market order, and improving people's livelihood and well-being, and effectively safeguarding the interests of consumers and the national economy.
The pharmaceutical industry is a special livelihood industry with high technological content and large investment in research and development. It is necessary to ensure that the enterprise has a certain profit in order to continue to "save lives and heal the wounded." Regulatory wisdom.
It is said that there was a couplet hanging in a certain pharmacy in ancient times: "I hope that people in the world will be free from disease, so why not put medicine on the shelves to make dust." We don't require modern pharmaceutical companies to reach this level, as long as they can make money legally and compliantly while taking care of their feelings , the public often does not grudge praise and recognition.
After the paracetamol of 2 yuan rushed to the hot search, Northeast Pharmaceuticals has already achieved several daily limit.
This is the voice from the market, clearly.
(Economic Daily She Ying)