China News Service, Beijing, July 14th: Focus on the seventh batch of national centralized drug procurement: How much has the price dropped?
How to ensure the continuity of medication?
Reporter Li Chun
"What impressed me the most was the special centralized procurement of insulin. The last batch has now entered the state of landing in Beijing." Talking about the effect of the centralized procurement of drugs organized by the state, Liu Ying, a clinical pharmacist in the Department of Pharmacy of China-Japan Friendship Hospital, told reporters that the place Ultra-long-acting insulins such as special and glargine used to cost more than 180 yuan each, "now it costs dozens of yuan each, and patients do not need to change their medicines, the compliance has improved, and the price is more suitable."
With the proposed results of the seventh batch of national centralized drug procurement, since its establishment in 2018, the National Medical Security Administration of China has carried out seven batches of state-organized drug centralized procurement, covering a total of 294 kinds of drugs, calculated according to the price before centralized procurement. , the amount involved accounts for about 35% of the annual purchase of chemical and biological drugs by public medical institutions.
When it comes to drug price cuts, many people think of the medical insurance negotiation known as "soul bargaining".
Chang Feng, Dean of the International Pharmaceutical Business School of China Pharmaceutical University, pointed out that medical insurance negotiation is to include patented drugs with high clinical value and excellent economic evaluation into the scope of medical insurance payment. A consensus on the price will be reached to guide the price of patented drugs to return to value.
The difference is that the procurement of drugs with quantity is under the action of the market mechanism, adhering to the principle of "integration of recruitment and procurement, linking volume and price", and the original research, reference preparations and generic drugs of the same quality level compete on the same stage. Features Design diversified bidding rules to reduce unreasonable drug prices, while ensuring the availability and quality of selected drugs.
Whether it is medical insurance negotiation or centralized drug procurement, the focus of the public is on which drugs can be reduced in price and by how much.
According to the National Medical Insurance Bureau, 60 kinds of drugs were successfully purchased in the seventh centralized procurement, and the average price of the selected drugs was reduced by 48%. According to the agreed purchase volume, it is expected to save 18.5 billion yuan per year.
For example, lenvatinib capsules, a first-line targeted drug for liver cancer, dropped from an average of 108 yuan to an average of 18 yuan per capsule, and one treatment cycle could save 8,100 yuan.
The much-watched antiviral drug oseltamivir has also dropped from an average of 4.5 yuan per tablet to 1 yuan.
Chang Feng also mentioned that in this centralized collection, omeprazole injection, milrinone injection, and tigecycline injection all decreased by more than 80%.
Drugs with higher prices, such as lenvatinib mesylate capsules and tirofiban injection formulations, also returned to a reasonable price level in this round of centralized procurement.
For the public, centralized procurement reduces the financial burden on patients and improves access to medicines.
The quality of drugs that pass the consistency evaluation standard is guaranteed, which also provides medical institutions with a good tendency to choose drugs.
"For the hospital side, centralized procurement is an optimization for the safe and rational use of drugs, and it is also a saving in terms of price." Liu Ying said.
For pharmaceutical companies, centralized drug procurement can also promote their high-quality, intensive, and multi-pipeline development ideas, spontaneously choose a production model with economies of scale, and further expand and strengthen large-scale industries and leading enterprises.
Chang Feng also pointed out that by correcting the pseudo-market mechanism with rebates as the main competition method, centralized procurement can promote the formation of a clean and healthy drug circulation and use link, which can force enterprises to turn to innovation-driven and stimulate the endogenous power of enterprise innovation.
It is worth noting that on the basis of adhering to the previous principles, the rules of the seventh batch of centralized procurement have been further improved.
For the first time, the mechanism of "preparing supply enterprises" was introduced to explore the realization of "dual supply" in one province, that is, each province has one main supplying enterprise and one standby supplying enterprise at the same time, providing dual guarantees for the timely, stable and smooth supply of medicines.
"One province's 'double supply' is the biggest breakthrough in this round of centralized procurement, and it is also a new exploration." Liu Ying said that under the normal landing of centralized procurement drugs, some provinces may experience temporary problems due to various reasons such as reported volume. Out of stock, out of stock in the market.
"Double supply" in one province has greatly ensured the continuity of medical treatment, established a drug substitute ladder, and solved the problem of drug use at the hospital and medical ends.
So far, China has organized seven batches of medicines, involving 294 kinds of medicines, covering the two major fields of chemical medicines and biological medicines.
Chang Feng believes that while ensuring the quality and supply of medicines and medical consumables, centralized procurement can "squeeze out the artificially high price water", effectively reduce the public's burden of seeing a doctor, and significantly improve the availability of medicines.
"This work has been developing in a more standardized and refined direction."
The expert said that starting from the second batch of national drug centralized procurement, the market share allocation method for constituencies has been fixed, but there is no clear provision for the backup mechanism after the supply is cut off.
The "dual supply" in one province takes the market supply and demand into consideration more fully.
In addition, the "inter-product fuse" mechanism introduced in this centralized procurement solves the problem of excessive price difference in the past, and the consideration of price difference factors is included in the design of the rules to reduce the price difference between provinces and prevent enterprises from colluding with bids.
The re-upgrading of the credit evaluation system has also strengthened the restraint effect on enterprises, making the process and system of the national centralized procurement more standardized and perfect.
"These all show that the centralized procurement of medicines organized by the state is developing in an in-depth direction," Chang Feng told reporters. "The reform is still making great strides, and the normalized and standardized procurement with volume will continue to deepen." (End)