"Amount purchase" spring show up

"Taking quantity purchases" will formally become the major trend of the tender year. Recently, the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission issued the "Guideline for Purchasing Pharmaceuticals in Sichuan Medical Institutions" (Consultation Draft) (hereinafter referred to as the "opinionation draft"), becoming the first province to implement "provided procurement" with separate documents. Similarly, in the recently issued key points of Shanghai's 2015 deepening reform of the medical and health system, the same emphasis was placed on expanding the range of pilot varieties on the basis of the pilot work of “scale procurement” in 2014 and further amplifying the effect of the policy of “promotional procurement”. , and explore the GPO and other models.

Analysts believe that this has a symbolic significance for the implementation of the "competent procurement" model for drug tendering for many years. From an overall analysis, "promotional procurement" may introduce new guidance and ideas for current drug tendering, unlike the "double envelope" low-price bid-winning model. If the price-price linkage is properly implemented, it can avoid the simple pursuit of low prices. The risk of product quality degradation. However, due to the amount of purchases made up, companies are more able to adjust the price of successful bids, and to some extent avoid the direct contradiction between consumers and suppliers. This is more scientific.

However, from the perspective of the market, "promotional procurement" will inevitably lead to further adjustments in product prices, and this policy goal may not change. The supply of quantity will also bring more uncertainty to the pharmaceutical market structure.

New wind direction

According to the above-mentioned “Explanatory Draft” of Sichuan Province, all procurement agencies should establish a joint public procurement agency in cities (states) as a unit. The representatives of health, human society, and medical institutions shall establish a procurement committee to compile procurement catalogs and summary procurement lists. Bidding, bid evaluation, negotiation and other procurement work.

Similar to the third-party procurement platform model in Guangdong, Sichuan Province also requires that the joint procurement body must submit the planned purchase volume in advance. According to the purchase list, the procurement catalog should be drafted into specific varieties, dosage forms, and specifications; at two quality levels, the tendering will be from Sichuan Province. The selection of varieties on the platform and negotiation with the production companies for tenders and bargaining still implement the principle of "one product, two regulations, three doses".

In addition, Sichuan Province in the implementation of "promotional procurement" stipulates that the difference between the actual procurement volume and the planned purchase volume of the procurement body must be within ± 20%, and that the lowest bid for the procurement of basic hospitals must not be lower than 50% of the total purchase volume.

Sichuan Province has thus become the first province in which to issue special requirements documents for the “promotional procurement” of tenders. From the content point of view, it has a series of requirements for the implementation body and execution framework of “promotional procurement”, and more implementation rules have not yet been issued.

The year 2015 is undoubtedly the tender year. Judging from the existing materials, Guangdong and Shanghai, two major provinces for drug use, have conducted in-depth explorations of “produced procurement” and achieved satisfactory results for the government. Nearly 10 provinces and cities such as Hubei, Jiangsu, and Anhui have also emphasized the implementation of "bring procurement" in some bidding documents. It can be seen that "promotional procurement" is bound to become one of the highlights of the 2015 drug bidding.

"From the current big situation, the direction of 'quantity procurement' is in line with the logic of development. While supporting many companies, they also expect some implementation details to be fair and equitable. In addition, local governments also need to formulate implementation ideas more clearly. To prevent the 'quantity procurement' from becoming an overkill 'secondary bargaining' would be a bad result of the implementation of the policy," said a person in charge of government affairs at a foreign-funded enterprise in Shanghai.

Influencing the industrial structure

An expert from the China Pharmaceutical and Pharmaceutical Industry Association pointed out that if the “scale procurement” is implemented on a large scale, it will have a huge impact on the entire pharmaceutical supply structure in China. On the one hand, the implementation of “quantity procurement” will make some enterprises with more industrial chain advantages and technological advantages form a larger market size for single products, which will increase the supply concentration of competitive products and improve the industry’s “small size”. The “scattered” situation has a positive role in promoting the elimination of outdated production capacity. On the other hand, such concentration from the industry itself will prompt enterprises to invest more effort in developing better products and improving product quality and upgrading China. The overall competitiveness of the pharmaceutical industry.

"However, to achieve the desired results, we must also have sufficient supporting measures, including changes in the procurement requirements of medical terminals. If the hospital's pursuit of cost-effective, high-efficiency treatment is not achieved, 'promotional procurement' is in progress. In the end, it will still deviate from the direction. This will require such support as the payment of standard prices for medical insurance and the reform of public hospital systems and mechanisms.” The above expert analysis pointed out that in the process of policy implementation, there will inevitably be pain, and large companies should have the courage to bear it. And use this as a driving force to transform business methods.

From the progress of tendering, Hebei, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Shaanxi, and other provinces and cities have started a new round of bidding for basic medicines, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015. Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Henan, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and other places are also expected to start bidding for base medicines. Non-basic drug bidding lags behind the bid for base drugs, and it is difficult to implement it on a large scale in 2015.

The Health and Development Commission has issued the "Guiding Opinions on Perfecting the Centralized Purchasing of Public Hospitals (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)", and it is expected that the official draft will be issued in the first half of 2015. The document emphasizes the principle of adhering to the principle of "quality first and reasonable price," adopting a "double envelope" assessment method, linking quantity and price, and orphan drugs purchased by the state, allowing local governments to "double-price bargain."

Regarding the judgment of the future tendering form, Guosen Securities believes that the 2015 drug tendering is expected to speed up, but the price pressure, opportunities and challenges coexist, the company will inevitably face the selection of “quantity vs price” of varieties, under the new round of drug price control Hospital drug selection will be more in line with pharmacoeconomics. The original high-priced drugs, foreign research drugs, and interest varieties will bear certain pressure, while drugs with definite curative effect, low daily usage, and high cost performance will have ample room for development.

In the current bidding environment, Goldman Sachs Gao Hua believes that with the new round of catalog adjustments, the demand for new drugs will increase, and the pricing pressures for the products covered by the Essential Drug List will be limited, but those who have multiple alternatives Drug products are under increasing pressure, and it is expected that the prices of these drugs will generally decline in local bidding, and the use of auxiliary drugs by physicians will also be reduced to control costs.