News 1+1丨The price of 55 kinds of medicines has been reduced by the country's procurement of "quantity for price"!

　　The third batch of national bulk purchases was implemented this month. 55 drugs and 191 products were selected, involving drugs such as hypertension, diabetes, and malignant tumors, with an average price reduction of 53%!

Take capecitabine, a chemotherapy drug, for example, the drug has dropped from 15 yuan per tablet to more than 3 yuan.

How does national centralized procurement reduce the burden and strengthen protection for patients through "quantity for price"?

Bai Yansong talks with Zhong Dongbo, Director of the Department of Medical Price and Bidding and Purchasing of the National Medical Security Administration, to help you understand each one.

Why has the national centralized drug procurement reduced drug prices by more than 50% for three consecutive years?

　　Zhong Dongbo: The core of the state's active centralized procurement is the volume procurement mechanism.

The key to the inflated drug prices now lies in the high sales expenses. As disclosed by the media, the sales expenses of 323 listed pharmaceutical companies in 2019 reached 287.3 billion.

The quantity purchase is to specify the quantity of drugs purchased by contract to ensure the use, which is equivalent to directly meeting the supply and demand, saving all the sales expenses in the middle, which is the main reason for the large price reduction.

Of course, there are other reasons, such as effective competition, timely collection of funds, and the promotion of industry concentration through centralized procurement to achieve economies of scale. These are also important reasons for achieving price reductions.

How to ensure that the national centralized drug procurement will not degrade the price without degrading quality?

　　Zhong Dongbo: The national organization of centralized procurement strictly controls the quality threshold. Now drugs that have passed the consistency evaluation of quality and efficacy are used as the scope of centralized procurement. Therefore, all drugs have the same level of quality and efficacy. People can rest assured that we are on the same level. Under the condition of quality, the price is lowered, and there is no need to worry about the problem of quality degradation.

Why are these 55 drugs and 191 products selected?

　　Zhong Dongbo: We adhere to the principle of demand-oriented and quality-priority in mass procurement. Therefore, the drugs we select are those that are widely used in clinical practice, have a relatively large purchase amount, and have passed the national drug quality and efficacy consistency evaluation.

How to treat 188 generic drugs out of the 191 selected products?

　　Zhong Dongbo: The selected drugs are all drugs that have passed the national drug quality and efficacy consistency evaluation. They are of the same quality level, so the drugs are exactly the same in terms of efficacy.

Of course, because generic drugs have cost advantages, through open, transparent, and fair competition, more generic drugs are ultimately selected.

What benefits did the company get after the price of medicines was cut?

　　Zhong Dongbo: There are still many benefits for enterprises.

　　First, the cost is reduced. Sales expenses, financial costs, and unit production costs through economies of scale have all been reduced.

Financial costs are mainly achieved through timely payment of funds. Nowadays, the payment cycle for drugs is usually 6 months to 1 year. However, the drugs collected by the organization in my country can basically be paid back before the end of the next month.

The rate of payment in a month is over 97%, which can reduce its financial cost, and it can reduce about 6 to 8 points a year.

　　Second, it helps to improve the fair competition environment for enterprises, from the original "rebate competition" to fair and healthy competition based on quality and cost.

　　Third, it helps to promote high-quality products quickly.

Because through centralized procurement, you can quickly enter the national public medical institutions, so (enterprises) can save a lot of marketing and assisting promotion costs.

　　In addition, companies can be forced to strengthen innovation.

In the past year, many companies have begun to increase investment in innovation.

　　What pace will the national centralized drug procurement work advance in the future?

　　Zhong Dongbo: After two years of exploration, we have now formed a set of effective systems including centralized procurement rules, supporting policies, and working mechanisms.

We are now consolidating and perfecting this set of policy systems and forming a system that can be promoted nationwide as soon as possible.

With this system, we can speed up the process of centralized procurement in the next step.

　　According to the deployment of the Central Government and the State Council, we are now promoting centralized procurement at the national and local levels.

　　At the national level, on the one hand, it is necessary to normalize the national centralized procurement of drugs, and set standards according to a certain amount and amount. If the standards are met, a new batch of centralized procurement will be initiated, about two batches a year.

Later, the scope and conditions of centralized procurement will be further expanded, and the pace of centralized procurement will be accelerated.

　　At the local level, guide provinces, including some larger cities, to actively carry out centralized procurement in accordance with the set of policies and regulations formed by the state.

We hope that by the end of 2022, these clinical purchases will account for a relatively large amount, and these key (drug) varieties suitable for centralized procurement can be included in the scope of centralized procurement.

How much did the national centralized drug procurement save patients?

　　Zhong Dongbo: According to static calculations, the national collection of three batches of medicines can save about 53.9 billion yuan.

Calculating on the basis of 40% paid by ordinary people, it can save about 21.6 billion. Other medical insurance has saved some funds. By expanding the medical insurance reimbursement drug catalog and improving the reimbursement level, ordinary people can get more benefits.

　　Through the centralized procurement of national medicines, the common people will not only benefit from the cost, but also benefit from other aspects.

　　First of all, the quality level of medications has been improved. Through investigations, before the “4+7” pilot, the proportion of medicines that passed the consistency evaluation by the masses was only about 50%, but after the implementation of the pilot, it can be expanded to over 90%, which is equivalent to the entire medication Significantly improved.

　　Secondly, medicines like anti-hepatitis B virus, high blood pressure, diabetes, tumors, etc., through price cuts, the availability of medicines for the common people has been improved, the common people can afford them, and their health can be better protected.

Will there be a national centralized procurement of medical consumables in the future?

　　Zhong Dongbo: This is currently in progress.

The annual amount of consumables in the country is about 300 billion, of which high-value medical consumables are 150 billion.

In accordance with the deployment of the Central Government and the State Council, we are studying and promoting the procurement of high-value medical consumables.

　　It is more difficult to purchase high-value medical consumables in quantity than drugs, because it lacks a relatively uniform quality evaluation standard, and is closely related to clinical use, and there are more varieties.

　　Therefore, on the one hand, we must learn from the practice and experience of centralized drug procurement, and at the same time, we must combine the characteristics of consumables to form a model suitable for consumables procurement.

We won’t let everyone wait too long. Our first order is a coronary stent.