Drug price monitoring has been implemented in many places, and retail pharmacies have ushered in major challenges

Recently, Shanghai announced the seventh batch of 42 limited pharmacies in 2022 drug network procurement information, and 42 drug pricing was included in the monitoring
.

According to the news, this monitoring is to do a good job in the work
related to the drug network of designated pharmacies in Shanghai.

It is understood that in recent years, in order to improve the drug network, Shanghai has actually been continuously strengthening the supervision
of drug prices.

In October last year, Shanghai Sunshine Pharmaceutical Procurement Network issued Notice No.
83 that drugs sold in designated pharmacies that belong to the "Shanghai Basic Medical Insurance, Work Injury Insurance and Maternity Insurance Drug Catalog" must upload retail price information
through the Sunshine platform.

Shanghai Pharmaceutical Office pushes basic drug information to designated pharmacies through the sunshine platform, combined with the relevant provisions of the medical insurance service agreement of designated pharmacies, and refers to information such as the same product regulations or the price of drugs with the same generic name purchased by designated medical institutions, and establishes a price "red and yellow line" monitoring and early warning mechanism
.

On March 10 this year, Shanghai Sunshine Pharmaceutical Procurement Network also issued the "Notice on Further Optimizing the Comprehensive Bargaining and Procurement of the City's Drug Classification Network", which divides drugs into two major categories within the scope of the medical insurance directory and outside the scope of the medical insurance directory
, and adopts the price negotiation transaction policy, while optimizing the "red, yellow and green line" price monitoring and early warning mechanism to further improve the drug network.

It is understood that there is a precedent
for drug price monitoring to be included in medical insurance planning.

It is reported that in December 2019, the National Medical Insurance Bureau issued the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in the Current Drug Price Management", pointing out that it is necessary to give play to the role of medical insurance in guiding drug prices, improve the management of agreements with designated institutions, strengthen the price supervision and information disclosure of drugs paid by medical insurance funds, and positively guide the market price order
.

In September 2021, the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Medical Security" issued by the General Office of the State Council also proposed to strengthen the normalization of the supervision of the prices of drugs and medical consumables, and implement the national pharmaceutical price monitoring project.
.
.
Curb the inflated prices of drugs and medical consumables, take into account the reasonable profits of enterprises, and promote the high-quality development
of the pharmaceutical industry.

At present, under the fact that price monitoring has become a routine action of the medical insurance department, price monitoring
has also begun in many places in addition to Shanghai for shortage drugs, commonly used drugs, collection and negotiation drugs.

On February 25 this year, the Shaanxi Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau released a list of 50 commonly used drugs, proposing to select three representative retail pharmacies in each city for each variety as monitoring points, and focus on monitoring
the prices of these 50 drugs.

According to the combing, the 50 varieties include Tasly's compound danshen drop pills, Qianjin Pharmaceutical's gynecological qianjin tablets, China Resources Sanjiu's cold spirit granules and other proprietary Chinese medicines, as well as Pfizer's Lipitor, Merck's losartan potassium tablets, Janssen's Daknin, Bayer's Bai TangPing, etc.
, are commonly used drugs
with high sales.

On November 5, 2021, the Shenzhen Municipal Medical Security Bureau issued a notice on strengthening the monitoring and management of medical insurance drug prices in designated retail pharmacies, clarifying that the state, Guangdong Province, and Shenzhen Municipality will organize centralized drug procurement of selected and non-selected drugs, national medical insurance negotiation drugs, drugs included in the "two diseases" (hypertension and diabetes) management by the state and Guangdong Province, and drugs within the scope of drug protection for specific diseases in shenzhen social medical insurance outpatient clinics.
Drugs in the list of drugs in the Supplementary Medical Insurance for Serious and Exceptionally Serious Diseases in Shenzhen, drugs with high unit prices, large sales volumes and high total sales amounts in designated retail pharmacies in the city, anti-tumor drugs, drugs that have been warned multiple times by designated retail pharmacies, and other drugs that need key monitoring are included in the key monitoring
.

The analysis believes that with the gradual tightening of policies, the impact will be greater
for designated pharmacies that account for about 50% of medical insurance drug sales.

Drug price monitoring will further restrict the drug pricing power of designated pharmacies, and drug prices may be further reduced, which will have a significant impact on the gross profit of pharmacies or affect the retail pharmacy market
.

Disclaimer: In no event shall the information or opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice
to any person.