9 batches of centralized procurement covered a total of 374 kinds of drugs, with an average price reduction of more than 50%——
Squeezing the "moisture" of drug prices will benefit the people more
Reporter Wu Jiajia
The National Organization Drug Joint Procurement Office recently announced the results of the ninth batch of centralized drug procurement organized by the state. 41 kinds of drugs have been successfully procured in this centralized procurement, and the average price of the selected drugs has been reduced by 58%, which is expected to save 182.2024 billion yuan in drug costs every year. The relevant person in charge of the National Health Insurance Administration said that the next step will be to guide all localities and selected enterprises to do a good job in the implementation of the results of the selection, so as to ensure that patients across the country can use the selected products after the centralized procurement and price reduction in March 3.
A total of 266 products were selected in the ninth batch of national drug centralized procurement, including commonly used drugs such as voglibose for the treatment of diabetes and rabeprazole for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. At the same time, it also includes anti-tumor drugs and 5 kinds of shortage drugs and emergency rescue drugs. "The coverage of centralized drug procurement is getting wider and wider, which will be more conducive to the choice of drugs in hospitals and benefit more people." Bian Xiaolan, director of the pharmacy department of Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, said.
Since 2018, the National Health Insurance Administration has carried out 9 batches of state-organized drug centralized procurement, including a total of 374 drugs, with an average price reduction of more than 50%. For example, lenalidomide capsules for the treatment of multiple myeloma were included in centralized procurement in a timely manner after the patent expired in May this year, and each capsule (5mg) was reduced from an average of about 25 yuan to 200 yuan, and patients could save about 15,3880 yuan per month in drug costs; For the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, rabeprazole oral regular-release dosage form and other three countries focus on monitoring rational drug use, and the price of drugs has been significantly reduced. Experts said that the normalization of centralized procurement and the squeezing of inflated drug prices are aimed at allowing consumers to use high-quality and high-priced drugs for a long time and directly feel the policy dividends.
It is understood that there are significant changes in the rules of this centralized procurement, that is, the procurement cycle of the selected drugs is 4 years, which is the longest drug procurement cycle since the state organized the centralized procurement of drugs. Lu Yun, a professor at the International Pharmaceutical Business School of China Pharmaceutical University, said that if the procurement cycle is short, there may be problems such as unreasonable production arrangements of enterprises leading to drug supply interruptions. In order to ensure the stability of clinical supply, this year, the procurement period of centralized procurement will be extended from the past 2 to 3 years to 4 years. "The extension of the procurement cycle not only allows the hospital to have a more stable expectation, but also helps the enterprise to formulate a long-term development strategy and reasonably arrange the production cycle according to the national usage and other conditions."
Another noteworthy change is the focus on "national key monitoring varieties". According to the regulations, the key monitored varieties can be reported according to the actual clinical amount, and there is no lower limit. In the ninth batch of centralized procurement, the proportion of some key monitored varieties will be reduced by 20%. The key monitored varieties of this centralized procurement include rabeprazole, omeprazole and esomeprazole. In this regard, Zhang Lan, director of the Department of Pharmacy of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, explained that the key monitoring catalogue is chemical drugs and biological products with many unreasonable clinical use problems, abnormally high use amounts, and greater impact on the rationality of drug use. If these drugs blindly pursue the completion of the centralized procurement task, there may be a risk of irrational use.
In order to prevent "bid-rigging" by enterprises, this centralized procurement also further optimizes the rules for innovation and elimination. For the first time, centralized procurement proposes that enterprises can form a consortium to declare, which means that although the selected enterprise is only one of the affiliated enterprises, the enterprises in the consortium can supply and share the area. For enterprises that complain and report that other reporting enterprises have collusion, bid-rigging, collusion and other violations of laws and regulations in the declaration process, and can provide substantive evidence materials, priority will be given when the "unit comparable price" of the same variety of reporting enterprises is the same. These rules not only effectively control the excessive price difference between different selected enterprises, but also further regulate the bidding behavior of enterprises.
The "Key Tasks for Deepening the Reform of the Medical and Health System in the Second Half of 2023" clearly states that the centralized procurement of drugs and medical consumables will be carried out on a regular basis, and the total number of national and provincial centralized procurement drugs will reach 450. The relevant person in charge of the National Health Insurance Administration said that it will continue to promote the expansion and quality improvement of centralized pharmaceutical procurement, and at the local level, it will also focus on the inter-provincial alliance procurement of some drugs other than the centralized procurement organized by the state. (Economic Times)