"This is really my life-saving medicine, originally 86 yuan a bottle (100 tablets), now it has risen to 1000,10 yuan a bottle in less than a year, an increase of more than <> times, and I can't buy it." Recently, a number of consumers reported that the price of hydrocortisone acetate tablets on the market has skyrocketed. Since most of them need to be taken stably for a long time, the skyrocketing price has caused the cost of medication for many patients to rise sharply.
Antibiotics, hormones and vitamins are the "three major elements" of clinical medicine. Hydrocortisone acetate as a representative drug of hormones, its clinical application is very wide, this time the price skyrocketed, the drug indications patients will fall into the "one drug is difficult to find" dilemma, even if you buy drugs by luck, you need to bear 10 times the heavy burden of the past. By replacing it with other hormones, the suitability and effectiveness of the drug will be greatly reduced.
The reasons for the abnormal price increase of hydrocortisone acetate tablets are more complex. In a word, it is the superposition of several uncertainties in the short term, resulting in the loss of original norms and order in drug pricing and production and circulation, and the market fluctuates sharply.
First, the drug was in the alternating phase of the old and new versions, and the alternation did not ensure a smooth transition. Previously, the two specifications produced by pharmaceutical companies for the drug have been discontinued, and a new version of one specification has been included in medical insurance, but new purchase and sales channels have not yet been established, and the drug is currently only supplied to hospitals, which needs to be purchased by government departments and has to go through a long process. And at the beginning of the production conversion, it was difficult to increase the production capacity for a while. In other words, there are loopholes in the replacement of old and new versions, resulting in a gap in the supply of drugs.
Secondly, the production process of the drug is updated and iterated, resulting in the coexistence of two processes with very different competitiveness, which has a huge impact on the price and output. The traditional "fermentation process" of the drug is time-consuming and laborious, and the cost of manpower and material resources is very high, which needs to be improved; Although the new synthetic raw materials are inexpensive, they have not yet been popularized. Process replacement, capacity increase and decrease, etc., can not be achieved overnight, and in the process of conversion, chaos is prone to occur. Not only the drug, the current progress of drug research and development and production technology update is significantly accelerated, new drugs continue to emerge, while old drugs are also accelerating the elimination, resulting in drug price fluctuations and supply chaos, will become more prominent.
The best way to combat this uncertainty is to inject stability. There are specific reasons for the shortage and supply of each drug, such as the rapid increase in the price of APIs; Some are because the profit is too thin and the production enthusiasm of the enterprise is not high; Some due to technological updates and product iterations, the production of old drugs has been discontinued, and new drugs have not yet been fully produced; In some cases, because the sales volume is very small, it is difficult to accurately match the drugs. In every link of drug production and circulation, there may be untimely or interrupted supply. However, "one key opens a lock", these problems are difficult to solve in one move, and it is reasonable to subdivide the reasons and implement precise policies.
To inject stability, we should closely follow market dynamics and do a good job of proactive prevention. It is a foreseeable phenomenon that the old and new versions are converted to production and the production process is updated, resulting in price and output fluctuations. It is necessary to make precautionary plans in advance, for example, the old version of the drug can continue to exist in the market for a long time, and the old version of the drug production line should not be shut down prematurely. If it is difficult to retain both the old and new production lines at the same time, at least a sufficient number of old drugs should be stocked before promoting the conversion of the old and new versions and the old and new processes.
The shortage of drugs has led to "one drug is difficult to find", which is a frequent phenomenon in recent years. Treatment cannot wait, and urgently needed drugs and special drugs are indispensable. Strengthen early warning of the shortage drug market, establish a shortage drug list and update it in a timely manner, carefully analyze the reasons for abnormal drug price fluctuations and tight supply, and take precautions and responses. Through smoother information exchange, drug distribution can be more accurate and fast; Hedge against abnormal market volatility through better stockpiles, thereby significantly increasing access to drugs that are prone to shortages, ensuring that every patient and every type of disease has timely access to needed or needy medicines.
Luo Zhihua (Source: China Youth Daily)