Domestic pharmaceutical anti-monopoly efforts continue to increase, and another API company has been fined

Recently, the website of the State Administration for Market Supervision reported that a pharmaceutical company in Shangqiu City was fined about 11.
044 million yuan for abusing its dominant market position and selling phenol raw materials at unfairly high prices
.
It is understood that phenol raw materials are mainly used to produce salicylic acid phenol plaster, commonly known as corn ointment
.
During the monopoly of the company, the average sales price of phenol raw materials rose by 9.
2 times compared with the historical price
.
In fact, in the pharmaceutical industry, there has always been a phenomenon in the field of APIs that related companies use market monopoly positions to manipulate prices for profiteering, or impose unreasonable trading conditions for unfair competition
.
Since the beginning of this year, the pharmaceutical industry has issued multiple antitrust fines
.
According to incomplete statistics, as of September, among the 18 publicly available investigations in the pharmaceutical industry, the monopoly of raw materials has accounted for the majority, and a total of 13 cases are monopoly of raw materials (1 suspended investigation)
.
In this regard, the analysis believes that the monopoly of APIs has occurred from time to time, mainly related to the API approval system and the characteristics of API production
.
Once the monopoly of the raw material drug companies occurs, it may cause a situation such as rising drug prices and tight drug demand
.
In order to curb the monopoly of raw materials medicine and effectively maintain the order of competition in the raw material medicine market, relevant departments in China have begun to make frequent attempts in recent years
.
For example, in the "Opinions on Further Doing a Good Job in Maintaining Supply and Stabilizing Prices of Drugs in Shortage" issued by China in 2019, it was emphasized that "increase the enforcement of illegal activities such as monopoly of raw materials" and "investigate and deal with raw materials in accordance with strict standards.
We insist on investigating and punishing behaviors such as monopolies and price violations in the field of preparations
.
" In April 2020, the "Administrative Measures for the National List of Shortage Drugs (for Trial Implementation)" was promulgated.
Regarding the abnormal prices of drugs in the list of shortages and clinically necessary and easily shortage drugs, the state stated that it will strengthen monitoring and early warning and strengthen price normalization supervision.
, Intensify the enforcement of illegal activities such as monopoly of raw materials, and properly handle the problem of excessively rising drug prices
.
In addition, in October, my country also promulgated the "Guidelines on Anti-monopoly in the Field of APIs (Draft for Comment)"
.
Clarified the legal risks in the investigation and determination of monopoly agreements in the API market, the determination of abuse of dominant positions, and the concentration of operators
.
In February 2021, the "Action Plan for Building a High-Standard Market System" clearly proposed the formulation of anti-monopoly guidelines and guidelines for the application of the exemption system in specific areas such as APIs
.
However, although the regulatory authorities have made many efforts in the anti-monopoly work of the API market, monopoly cases of APIs still occur from time to time
.
In this regard, the analysis believes that there are two main reasons.
One is that under the influence of the current API approval system and the characteristics of API production, the production of APIs is highly concentrated, and the distribution channels of APIs are easily controlled; the other is In a highly concentrated market, the implementation of monopolistic behavior can obtain high monopoly profits, so many operators still have a fluke mentality
.
Regarding the above situation, some people in the industry pointed out that to control the monopoly chaos in China's API market requires multi-faceted efforts.
The main focus is to give play to market mechanisms and improve laws and regulations to reduce market entry barriers and increase penalties in the API industry.
While innovating law enforcement methods, it is also necessary to encourage relevant enterprises to use technological innovation as the main means of competition to effectively safeguard the public interests of consumers and society
.
In general, judging from the anti-monopoly cases that have been disclosed so far, compared with the past, the anti-monopoly law enforcement against the pharmaceutical industry is becoming larger and wider
.
In this regard, as a raw material drug company, when developing and expanding, it must timely objectively evaluate its market share and market position, make prudent decisions, and strictly abide by laws and regulations in order to avoid monopolistic behaviors
.