Beijing, 4 April (Xinhua) -- Topic: The cumulative reduction of drug consumption costs has exceeded 7 billion yuan -- a perspective on the results of centralized procurement of medicines

Xinhua News Agency reporter

The eighth batch of state-organized drug centralized procurement opened in Hainan a few days ago. Starting from the expansion of the "2019+4" centralized procurement pilot in 7, up to now, the state has carried out 8 batches of 333 drugs and 3 batches of 4 types of high-value medical consumables, with an average price reduction of more than 50% and 80% respectively. According to the relevant person in charge of the National Health Insurance Administration, superimposed on local alliance centralized procurement, the cumulative cost of drug consumption has been reduced by more than 4000 billion yuan.

Continue to squeeze out drug consumables inflated price "moisture"

As of February 2023, 2, the continuous procurement of coronary stents has completed the procurement of 28,17 coronary stent products, accounting for 85.10% of the total agreed procurement. This is the first exploration of the centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables to carry out the continuous work nationwide.

Gao Xue, head of the centralized procurement team of the joint procurement office of high-value medical consumables organized by the state, introduced that the selected price of this continued procurement remained stable on the whole, with the average price of the selected stents being about 770 yuan, and the selected products increased by 4.

"Compared with the previous round of procurement, the variety of coronary stents reproduced this time is more abundant." Yang Weixian, vice president of Fuwai Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said that in addition to the "benefits" of price reduction, centralized procurement timely product replacement according to clinical needs, which also provides more choices for patients and clinics.

Let the medical burden of patients be reduced - from up to 2021,2022 yuan to less than 3,8 yuan, and the collection of coronary stents to "reduce the burden" for the people can be seen from this set of data: in 4 and 8, Fuwai Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences used about <>,<> coronary stents, reducing the burden on patients by about <> million yuan.

In addition to the centralized procurement of consumables that has greatly reduced prices, the centralized procurement of multi-category drugs also reduces a lot of burdens for patients.

Mr. Li, a 60-year-old Tianjin citizen who has suffered from coronary heart disease and high blood pressure for many years, paid about 34 yuan per day for drugs before the collection and less than 7 yuan per day after the collection, and "the cost of drugs has been reduced by nearly <>,<> yuan per year."

Yang Qing, director of the Department of Cardiology at the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, said that the number of people with heart disease and high blood pressure is huge, and patients need to take medication all year round. At present, drugs for chronic diseases and common diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia are included in the centralized procurement, and with the implementation of multiple batches of centralized procurement results, the related costs have been greatly reduced and the burden on patients has been reduced.

At the end of 2022, the seventh batch of national drug procurement results involving 31 treatment categories landed in Jiangsu, Fujian, Inner Mongolia and other provinces. Taking Jiangsu Province as an example, the seventh batch of centralized procurement is expected to save 31.<> billion yuan in drug costs a year.

Cultivate "benign soil" for more enterprises to compete effectively

From the 77 selected enterprises in the second batch of drug centralized procurement to 125 in the third batch of centralized procurement, to the record high proportion of the fourth batch of centralized procurement enterprises, and then to the subsequent multi-batch centralized procurement enterprises with a stable selection rate of more than 70%, with the continuous improvement of centralized procurement policies, relaxing the competitive pattern and appropriately maintaining the competition rate are providing a benign competitive environment for more enterprises.

——"Bringing quantity" to enhance enterprises' willingness to participate in collective procurement

"Bringing quantity" is the core link to promote centralized procurement. In the continuous procurement of coronary stents organized by the state, 3696,178 medical institutions across the country participated in the procurement and agreed procurement volume of about 40.30 million, an increase of <>% and <>% respectively over the previous round of centralized procurement.

Real market share provides more impetus for enterprises to "sell volume at price". In this coronary stent successive procurement, Sino Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd. has a total of two products included in the centralized procurement, the company's coronary stent shipment volume was 2,2023 a year, and after the continuation of the collection procurement won the bid, 4,<> in the first quarter of <> has been shipped.

-- Collective procurement rules pay more attention to efficiency and fairness

The latest batch of centralized procurement of drugs has increased the number of varieties in the selected range, and at the same time adopted "one main supplier and two alternative suppliers", which will further ensure the supply of centralized procurement drugs and allow more enterprises to participate in centralized procurement.

In addition, through the establishment of a trigger mechanism for centralized procurement, advance payment for procurement, and standardization of drug circulation, the state has continuously improved relevant policies and measures in the process of promoting centralized procurement, and promoted the normalization and institutionalization of centralized procurement.

Jiang Bin, deputy director of the Public Policy Research Center at Peking University, said that the pace of national centralized procurement is more moderate and steady, and enterprises can have more time and energy to prepare for expanding scale and improving production capacity.

Bring "catfish effect" to the development of the pharmaceutical industry

Centralized procurement is becoming an important part of promoting the reform of enterprises, hospitals and pharmaceutical industries. Some experts said that "volume for price" means that participating in centralized procurement will gain more market share, which will promote pharmaceutical companies to reduce costs, stabilize supply, and develop innovation.

"The state's organization of centralized drug procurement has a positive guiding effect on the pharmaceutical industry, promotes a clearer industrial division of labor, and accelerates industrial classification and transformation." Ding Jinxi, executive vice president of the Graduate School of China Pharmaceutical University, said that pharmaceutical companies with strong imitation capabilities and large-scale production capacity can do rapid imitation; For innovative enterprises, it is to promote them to put more energy into product innovation and research and development.

He said that this is only the impact of centralized procurement on the source of enterprises, from the perspective of hospital management, centralized procurement will promote hospitals to think about how to replace generic drugs more reasonably, and replace them under the premise of ensuring the efficacy and stability of treatment.

Reducing prices is only the first step, and it is the key to use it. The medical insurance department has taken multiple measures at the same time, such as signing purchase and sales contracts, clarifying the annual agreed purchase volume, and improving the "dual-channel" supply guarantee mechanism to ensure that ordinary people can use centralized procurement products in a timely manner.

In order to promote the smooth landing of centralized procurement of drugs and consumables, Fuwai Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences will simultaneously promote the implementation of centralized procurement and payment method reform, establish a hospital DRG (group by disease diagnosis) management team, establish a "clinical-procurement-DRG" linkage working mechanism, investigate clinical front-line feedback, etc., to ensure the priority use of centralized procurement products and reduce the burden on patients.

According to the previous documents issued by the National Health Insurance Administration, the coverage of centralized procurement will continue to expand, and by the end of 2023, the cumulative number of national and provincial centralized procurement drugs in each province will reach 450, chemical drugs, proprietary Chinese medicines, and biological drugs should be covered, high-value medical consumables will further focus on key products such as cardiology and orthopedics, and the reform dividend will continue to benefit more people. (Reporter Peng Yunjia, Mu Tiecheng, Zhang Jianxin, Qiu Bingqing)