8 Pharmaceutical companies suffered 94 ****

"Taking quantity purchases" is one of the new directions and ideas introduced in the current drug tendering, and it has also become a hot word in the bidding for medicines around the country. However, the just-concluded procurement in Handan City of Anhui Province has caused controversy in the industry.

On April 24th, the procurement of concentrated pharmaceuticals in Anhui was completed: a single product with a quantity inquiry and a price reduction of 25%. However, the price cuts of 8 pharmaceutical companies such as Hongri Pharmaceutical, Baiyunshan, Jiangsu Oxyacon, and GSK, which are included in the catalog of single-species procurement, have not reached the price cut of 25%, and all of their pharmaceuticals are not allowed to remain permanently in Handan. All public medical institutions sell.

For the permanent bans of these eight companies, people in the industry, including many pharmaceutical companies such as Baiyun Mountain, believe that the practice is simple and crude and violates the principle of fairness and justice. A pharmaceutical distribution company president told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the above-mentioned consortium did not have the power to ban drug sales by pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies were not afraid of actually reducing prices, but the premise was that they would be able to really quantify the purchase and use, and ensure that drug companies did not Loss.

Shi Lichen, head of the Beijing Dingchen Medical Consultation Center, told 21st Century Business Herald reporter that all drugs are banned. This damages the right to choose drugs for local consumers. The drugs paid by the Medicare fund should be developed by the medical insurance department and related departments. Payment standards guide the formation of reasonable market prices.

8 pharmaceutical companies blocked

On April 10, the Health Bureau of the People's Republic of China announced that the relevant documents require that the non-discretion rate of single-species drug manufacturers or authorized agents in Bengbu shall not be less than 25% of the price paid by TCM in the province's drug price list. The production company can do it through direct profit-making, or through the agent's commitment to profit.

On April 19, a drug procurement consortium composed of 94 public medical institutions in Handan city (hereinafter referred to as the Consortium) issued a letter to the pharmaceutical company, which clearly stipulated the decline in the number of drugs included in the list of single-species products. If it is less than 25%, all the pharmaceuticals of its manufacturing enterprises may not be sold in all public medical institutions.

In addition, the letter also clearly shows that for non-compliance companies, the consortium will report to the provincial pharmaceutical procurement platform, apply for a record of bad behavior once, and report to the Provincial Health Reform Office and the National Medical Reform Office, and apply for bad behavior for the record.

On April 22, the website of Handan City Health Bureau informed the results of this centralized agent procurement. The Handan City Health Department introduced that the procurement consortium focused on intensive procurement and was held at the Public Resource Management Center on April 21st. After one-day review, more than 20 kinds of medicines were awarded for bids for the purchase of single-species products. The price drop was 25%; the packaged competitive negotiation procurement identified a total of 5 out-of-town and 5 city-wide 10 distribution companies as successful bidders.

The Handan City Health Bureau said that from the procurement results, Handan City basically completed the initial target of centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and stated that it will issue supporting documents such as the "Procedures for the Implementation of Concentrated Supply Supervision of Pharmaceutical Consumables Equipment". To strengthen the supervision and management of successful bidders, distribution companies, and medical and health institutions.

The previous "warning" of the Consortium is not a virtual one.

On April 23, the Consortium issued an announcement stating that Shandong Danhong Pharmaceutical, Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Factory, Beijing Sihuan Pharmaceutical, Harbin Songhe Pharmaceutical, Jiangsu Oiseang Pharmaceutical, Dali Pharmaceutical, Tianjin Hongri Pharmaceutical, GLAXOSMITHKLINE The 8 companies MANUFACTURINGS.pA did not achieve a 25% decline in the drugs included in the single-category catalog unit, and all the pharmaceuticals of their production companies were not allowed to be sold in all public medical institutions in Handan.

On April 27th, a 21st Century Business Herald reporter called on the purchase consortium to discuss the above issues. However, the other party said that “letting you find a leader” directly dropped the phone.

Subsequently, the 21st Century Business Herald reporter called Bai Yunshan Office of the Secretary-General, the relevant responsible person said that the above approach is unfair to drug companies. If the pharmaceutical company is required to drastically reduce the price and cause no profit, the company will automatically withdraw, which is a market behavior. The permanent ban on the sale of all public medical institutions in the city violates the principle of fair market competition.

In this regard, market analysts believe that although the price reduction is an important measure to solve the current high drug prices, the practice of the coalition is too crude. Shi Lichen told reporters in the 21st Century Business Herald that there were many doubts about the bidding process of the consortium. For example, what is the standard for the so-called 25% price reduction and why should drug companies that do not meet the standard be permanently blocked? All of the eight pharmaceutical companies mentioned above are permanently sold in public hospitals, which impairs local consumers' right to choose drugs.

The implementation of the procurement of quantity was questioned

In fact, the pharmaceutical “harvest with quantity, price, and quantity” originated in Minhang District, Shanghai. Its “one product, one plant, one plant, and one distribution” medicine collection model was later used by Anhui Province as a reference. The final design was “one product, three doses, and two specifications.” "Adding a single source of promise system" basic drug procurement model.

On February 28, 2015, the General Office of the State Council promulgated the "Guiding Opinions on Improving the Centralized Procurement of Drugs in Public Hospitals," which proposed ideas such as classified procurement and quantity procurement. The original intention of the system design is: the concept of “quantity” should be introduced into drug bidding to help companies generate economies of scale, and ultimately achieve the twin goals of reasonably reducing drug prices and supporting quality enterprises to become bigger and stronger.

Judging from the current public information, Guangdong and Shanghai, two major pharmaceutical provinces and cities, have conducted in-depth explorations of “produced procurement”, and nearly 10 provinces and cities such as Hubei, Jiangsu, and Anhui have also emphasized “promotional procurement” in some bidding documents. "The implementation of. "Amount purchase" has become one of the key words in the 2015 drug bidding.

In the opinion of a president of a drug distribution company, the quantity also means the uniqueness of the bulk pharmaceutical supply company, which can reduce the grey space in the process of drug purchase and sale and ensure the implementation of the procurement results. "In the process of tendering, it remains to be doubted whether or not real procurement can be achieved."

The above-mentioned president stated that pharmaceutical companies do not actually resist the price cuts of medicines. If they can actually achieve sales at the same time and gain profits, they would not be happy. However, it is not easy to implement them in a region or province.

In fact, the core of sales of prescription drugs at the hospital is doctor's prescription. A person in charge of drug bidding with many years of experience explained to a 21st Century Business Herald reporter that it is unrealistic to base the decision on the amount of drugs based on the sales volume of drugs in the previous year. “If the product is not monopolistic, doctors have more choice in treatment prescriptions. It may be that the price of the successful bidder goes on, but the sales volume has not been improved, and the company's price reduction sales may also bring losses."

It was also learned that at present, the volume of documents in some provinces is required to be measured in accordance with 80% of the previous year's drug use by purchasing medical institutions or up and down 20%. The person in charge of the above-mentioned drug tenders pointed out that the accuracy of these fluctuations is not easy to make mistakes, and it does not rule out the possibility that medical institutions will unilaterally want to reduce the purchase price and intend to increase the purchase volume.

Shi Lichen told reporters in the 21st Century Business Herald that the drugs in the catalogues of 8 pharmaceutical companies with the same price as Hongri Pharmaceutical, Jiangsu Aoxei Kang, and GSK are unwilling to cut their prices by 25%, and enterprises certainly have their own reasons. From the perspective of drug properties, not all drugs are suitable for a price reduction of 25%. However, if the real amount of sales is achieved, many companies may even cut their prices by 40%.

If pharmaceutical companies are forced to cut prices blindly, some may overlook the quality of products, and many companies are no longer producing low-priced drugs. This is one of the reasons why many low-priced drugs disappear in the market. For example, Shi Lichen said that before a commonly used drug 100 tablets only need 1-2 yuan, but because they were asked to cut prices again, the company was unprofitable, they changed the packaging, currently in the market 7-8 yuan a box, 20 per box Tablet medicine, which also set aside space for price cuts, but in fact the consumer bears more costs.

"The medicines paid by the Medicare Fund should be set up by the medical insurance department in conjunction with the relevant departments to establish the payment standards for medical insurance, and guide the formation of reasonable market prices," Shi Lichen said.