It is hard to find a box of antipyretic and analgesic drugs, and some pharmacies have significantly increased their prices for bundled sales
Severely punish the illegal acts of hoarding and raising drug prices in accordance with the law
● The reporter visited many pharmacies in Beijing and found that there were long queues at the door of the pharmacies, and the progress of the queue was slow, and many drug buyers were waiting for replies such as "not available" and "out of stock".
It is difficult to find Lianhua Qingwen and antigen kits in stock on e-commerce platforms.
Lianhua Qingwen is available in a limited amount in self-operated pharmacies online, and it is sold out as soon as it hits the shelves
● A Beijing citizen went to 6 brick-and-mortar pharmacies to buy Lianhua Qingwen, 5 of which were sold out, and the only pharmacy with stock had already raised the price to 150 yuan a box.
In some local pharmacies, Lianhua Qingwen is bundled with other medicines, named "anti-epidemic kits", and the price ranges from 399 yuan to 888 yuan
● It is necessary to strengthen the guidance of public opinion and avoid panic buying by the public.
Regulatory authorities intensify online and offline inspections, implement online and offline integrated supervision, establish a full life cycle information traceability system for drugs and medical devices, achieve "early detection, early strike, early exposure", and crack down on violations severely and quickly Behavior
□ Our reporter Wen Lijuan
"Even Huaqingwen, Huoxiangzhengqi, Banlangen, thermometers, and antigen kits are gone." On the morning of December 10, at the entrance of a pharmacy in Chaoyang District, Beijing, a clerk shouted loudly to the long queue, "Buy these Medical supplies people, stop queuing."
As soon as the words fell, there was a sigh in the crowd.
Some people turned around and left, while others were going to wait and try their luck.
Recently, a reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" visited many pharmacies in Beijing and saw that there were long queues at the entrance of the pharmacies - almost all of them were for four types of drugs (antipyretics, cough medicines, antibiotics and antiviral drugs) or antigen reagents Comes in a box.
The queue is progressing slowly, and many drug buyers are waiting for answers such as "no more", "out of stock", "come back tomorrow".
Some people said that they searched for the target drug based on online guides or lists recommended by relatives and friends.
The reporter found in interviews that with the gradual refinement and optimization of local epidemic prevention policies, the public's demand for medical supplies such as antipyretics and antigen kits has surged, and related products have been out of stock in many places, and some merchants have taken the opportunity to increase prices sharply.
The State Administration for Market Regulation has continuously issued documents to regulate the price and competition of medical supplies and other epidemic-related materials, warning relevant operators not to sell products at a higher price than the marked price, not to drive up prices, and not to collude in price increases, etc., emphasizing the promotion of Lianhua Qingwen Drug prices are checked.
A number of interviewed experts pointed out that the relevant operators took advantage of the epidemic to hoard and drive up prices, and were suspected of violating laws and regulations such as the Price Law, Anti-monopoly Law, E-commerce Law, and the "Regulations on Clearly Marking Prices and Prohibiting Price Fraud". Market supervision of medical supplies, establishing a regulatory system and mechanism of "government normative guidance, industry honesty and self-discipline, and public participation in supervision" to ensure the quality, price, supply and circulation of medical supplies.
Stockpile of drugs far exceeds supply
Generally out of stock online and offline
Mr. Jia, a Beijing citizen who was queuing up, was a little flustered when he heard the above-mentioned pharmacy clerk shouting that it was out of stock.
Seeing that the few people in line in front had dispersed, he hurried forward and asked the clerk to recommend some medicines with similar effects.
Six or seven minutes later, the clerk took two bags of medicines and put them in front of Mr. Jia, telling him which ones relieve cough and reduce phlegm, which one relieves diarrhea, and which one improves immunity.
A checkout, 643 yuan.
"It feels like going to the doctor without a disease." Mr. Jia laughed at himself with two bags of medicine, "But there are old people and children at home, so don't be careless. Buy some medicines, so you can be prepared."
After Mr. Jia left, Ms. Sun went up to ask if there was any "ibuprofen", and the clerk replied: "Ibuprofen has long been gone, and it is out of stock recently. All antipyretics are out of stock." Quite Disappointed, Ms. Sun told the reporter that she had gone to more than 10 pharmacies in order to buy ibuprofen.
According to the clerk of the pharmacy, because some positive patients with the new crown on the Internet said that they were sore after being sick, and that ibuprofen had a good analgesic effect, many people began to rush to buy ibuprofen, which led to a shortage of this drug, and the recent replenishment has also been delayed. not easy.
The reporter visited several physical pharmacies for several consecutive days and found that Lianhua Qingwen, ibuprofen, acetaminophen sustained-release tablets and antigen kits were all sold out, and the arrival date was uncertain.
Pudilan Anti-inflammatory Oral Liquid and Lancen Oral Liquid, which are considered by the public to have a "replacement" effect, are also out of stock in some pharmacies.
In addition, some drugs that have not received attention before but have been included in the "Reference Table of Commonly Used Drugs for Home Treatment of Patients with New Coronavirus Infection", such as Loratadine and Liushen Pills, have also accelerated their delivery and even become out of stock in some pharmacies. The phenomenon.
Many pharmacies are too busy to take orders online and give priority to meeting the needs of in-stores; some pharmacies package and sell four types of drugs with similar effects according to public demand, and place them at the door of the store for the public to scan the QR code to buy by themselves.
Some hospitals are also facing shortages.
A staff member of a tertiary hospital in Beijing told reporters that there have been a lot of citizens dispensing medicines in recent days, and the hospital has no relevant medicines; Lianhua Qingwen Granules from a hospital in Chaoyang District, Beijing, appeared in the fever clinic on the afternoon of December 9. Out of stock, supply will not be restored until evening.
In addition to Beijing, the reporter contacted many pharmacies and citizens in Changsha, Hunan, Guangzhou, Guangdong, Chengdu, Sichuan, Yan'an, Shaanxi, and Zhengzhou, Henan by phone, and was told that Lianhua Qingwen, ibuprofen, and antigen kits were offline entities. Hard to find in store.
The situation of online drug purchase is also not optimistic.
As of press time, it is difficult to find Lianhua Qingwen and antigen kits in stock on e-commerce platforms, and some drugs that can still be ordered or non-mainland versions show that it will take 4 to 7 days to ship.
JD.com's self-operated pharmacy currently implements a limited supply of Lianhua Qingwen, which is put on the shelves once a day at 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
The top rankings in the "Analgesic and Analgesic Drug List" of various shopping apps are different brands of ibuprofen, acetaminophen sustained-release tablets, and Pudilan anti-inflammatory tablets, all of which show "out of stock".
An e-commerce practitioner said that consumers are hoarding medicines out of various psychological reasons, and the purchase quantity far exceeds the daily market supply. This kind of shortage may take a week or two to alleviate, but the current logistics has not fully recovered. Restocking to regions is a problem.
Prices of medical supplies skyrocket
Big difference between different platforms
Short supply led to price increases.
Mr. Zhou, a Beijing resident, was looking for an antipyretic and analgesic drug for his child on the Internet. He found that an online store sold a 100ml*1 bottle of acetaminophen oral suspension at 209.4 yuan, which was only about 30 yuan before.
In addition, merchants also quietly increased the courier fee, which used to be only five or six yuan, but now it has risen to 20 yuan.
The price increase of the "Internet celebrity" drug Lianhua Qingwen has attracted much attention.
In late November, after Lianhua Qingwen was out of stock, some pharmacies raised prices to varying degrees. Some pharmacies sold Lianhua Qingwen Capsules of 0.35g*48 capsules at 46 yuan per box. Yuan/box, a price increase of more than 50%.
Today, some pharmacies have raised prices even more, and the price gap between different platforms and pharmacies is also relatively large.
Taking a box of 0.35g*24 capsules of Lianhua Qingwen Capsules as an example, the prices of different pharmacies on a certain food delivery app are different, the lowest is 12.25 yuan, and the highest is 58 yuan, but they all show "resting"; different pharmacies on a shopping app The unit price ranges from 14.8 yuan to 59.9 yuan.
Mr. Yang, a Beijing resident, told reporters that on December 7, he bought Lianhua Qingwen at 6 physical pharmacies in Chaoyang District and Haidian District, 5 of which were sold out, and the only pharmacy with stock had already raised the price to 150 yuan a box.
Similar chaos also appeared on some social platforms.
The reporter noticed that someone sold Lianhua Qingwen Capsules in the community, 0.35g*24 capsules for 150 yuan.
In some local pharmacies, Lianhua Qingwen is bundled with other medicines, named "anti-epidemic kits", and the price ranges from 399 yuan to 888 yuan.
In addition to medicines, the price of antigen kits has also risen sharply recently.
Since the beginning of December, on various e-commerce sellers and group-buying mini-programs, the price of antigen kits has increased from 3 yuan or 4 yuan per copy to 6 yuan or 7 yuan.
Others sold each copy for 9 yuan or 10 yuan on social platforms.
The reporter interviewed a number of pharmacy clerks and online shopping platform customer service staff about the reason for the price increase. The price has already increased, and the pharmacy can't help it.
A staff member of a pharmacy in Chaoyang District, Beijing said that due to different purchase channels, some small pharmacies were overweighted by dealers at all levels, and could only get high-priced drugs. In addition to labor costs and transportation costs, drug prices rose sharply .
price gouging bundling
Suspected of violating laws and regulations
"Out of panic and awareness of the spread of the epidemic, some citizens 'hoarded medicines' for peace of mind or for emergencies, which triggered an upsurge in buying medicines, causing pharmacies and hospitals in the market. Medicines such as Zhengqi are out of stock, and the surge in demand has led to rising prices of medicines such as Lianhua Qingwen sold in some channels." said Deng Yong, director of the Qihuang Law and Business Research Center of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
He pointed out that some pharmacies have bad motives such as taking advantage of the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies to earn high profits through illegal means such as prices and sales. Promote the excessive rise in commodity prices".
According to the price law, if an operator violates the regulations on clearly marked prices, he will be ordered to make corrections, his illegal income will be confiscated, and he may be fined up to 5,000 yuan; if there is price fraud, he may be fined up to 500,000 yuan; for fabricating and disseminating price increase information, Those who drive up prices, hoard prices, and promote commodity prices to rise too fast and too high can be fined up to 3 million yuan; those who collude with each other and manipulate market prices to cause a relatively large increase in commodity prices can be fined up to 5 million yuan.
Regarding the bundled sales and tie-in sales of other products in some pharmacies, Deng Yong believes that they are suspected of violating the Anti-Monopoly Law and the E-commerce Law. If an operator with a dominant market position conducts unreasonable tie-in sales, it is an abuse of market dominance. status violations.
Operators must remind consumers in a prominent way when tying products, otherwise, even if they do not have a dominant market position, it is an illegal act.
"It is necessary to strengthen the guidance of public opinion and avoid panic buying by the public. The market supervision department must increase the investigation and punishment of illegal activities such as hoarding, driving up prices, fabricating and disseminating price increase information, and tying sales, so as not to give unscrupulous traders an opportunity." Long-term Du Xiujun, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm who focuses on the pharmaceutical field, said.
Online and offline integrated supervision
Increase capacity to meet demand
On December 9, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Reminder on the Price of Epidemic-Related Materials and the Order of Competition", proposing "Nine Don'ts", six of which are related to prices, including the prohibition of selling goods at a higher price than the marked price, and the prohibition of charging any unpaid fees. Prices must be marked, price gouging, etc. are not allowed.
With regard to price gouging, the document further explained that the price must not be increased significantly when the cost has not increased significantly, or that the price increase has been significantly higher than the cost increase despite the cost increase.
It is not allowed to force bundled sales of goods and substantially increase prices in disguise.
It is not allowed to hoard a large number of epidemic-related materials with tight market supply and abnormal price fluctuations beyond the normal storage quantity or storage cycle without legitimate reasons.
On December 10, the Beijing Market Supervision Bureau notified a case of selling antigen kits at high prices, and planned to give the parties a warning and an administrative penalty of 200,000 yuan.
The reporter interviewed relevant online shopping platforms, and the other party responded that "they will continue to monitor the prices of medical supplies that are currently in high demand by users, and we will deal with merchants who are hoarding and driving up prices together. Everyone is welcome to supervise together", and appeals to "the public to buy rationally." , no need to worry, it is expected to return to normal soon.
In response to the current chaos of hoarding and price hikes, Deng Yong suggested that the regulatory authorities should increase online and offline inspections, implement online and offline integrated supervision, and crack down on illegal activities severely and quickly.
"All departments should clarify the scope of powers and responsibilities, improve coordination and operational capabilities, and formulate a long-term execution connection joint prevention and control mechanism. Use information technology to integrate government resources and social resources required for drug and medical device supervision, break or reduce interdepartmental Information barriers, realize the joint linkage between market supervision and drug supervision departments at all levels and departments such as public security, drug supervision, health, industry and information technology, and give full play to their respective advantages, so as to improve the pertinence and effectiveness of the supervision of epidemic-related materials, and strictly investigate and punish according to law. Illegal operation of pharmacies or platforms." Deng Yong said.
He also proposed to establish a modern supervision system, establish a full life cycle information traceability system for drugs and medical devices, use the online pharmacy transaction monitoring mechanism, and coordinate with institutions such as the Medical Device Network Transaction Monitoring Center of the State Drug Administration to promote the supervision system. Informatization and networking, monitoring the circulation and price of drugs and medical devices, to achieve the effect of "early detection, early attack, and early exposure".
Du Xiujun made suggestions from the enterprise level.
He believes that drug and medical device wholesale enterprises should give full play to the role of bridges between production enterprises and the market, help production enterprises formulate and implement production plans, increase supply capacity, and meet market demand; pharmacies should change their business concepts to improve pharmaceutical service levels Expand the influence, thereby enhancing the economic and social benefits of pharmacies.
In addition, it is necessary to increase support for logistics companies to ensure that online shopping drugs are delivered to consumers in a timely manner.
From the consumer's point of view, Deng Yong reminded the public to carefully regulate medication and pay attention to the taboos of superimposed use of drugs, etc., "In addition to Lianhua Qingwen Capsules, the public can also choose other traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. Traditional Chinese medicines such as dehumidification have a certain effect. But like the elderly, patients with underlying diseases and low immunity, if the high fever cannot be relieved, and there are obvious shortness of breath, wheezing, etc., they should go to the hospital in time."
Comics/Li Xiaojun