"Dual-channel" special drug retail performance revealed

On April 30, 2021, the National Medical Insurance Administration released the "Reference List of Partially Negotiated Drug Equipping Institutions for New Access in 2020 (First Batch)", which included 19 drugs with urgent clinical needs and low substitutability (see Table 1).

Table 1: The first batch of 19 special drugs included in the "dual channel"

Note: Haosen's imitations of enzalutamide, and lenvatinib imitations of Simcere, Qilu and Chia Tai Tianqing are not within the scope of this analysis.

01 After the implementation of the "dual channel" policy, has the retail layout of specialty medicines really expanded?

1.

Table 2 shows the sales of 19 specialty drugs in sample pharmacies in 2019-2021

Table 2: Sales of 19 specialty drugs in sample pharmacies in 2019-2021 (RMB)

Note: Sample pharmacy sales data were not monitored for tetrabenazine (Teva) and edaravone (CP Fenghai)

2.

Figure 1 shows the number of provinces where the sales data of sample pharmacies were monitored in Q1 and Q2 of 2021 for 19 specialty drugs

Figure 1: Changes in the number of provinces where the sales data of sample pharmacies were monitored in Q1 and Q2 of 2021 for 19 special drugs

Note: No sample pharmacy sales data were monitored in Q1 and Q2 of 2021 for tetrabenazine (Teva), edaravone (CP Fenghai), and clopasvir (Kaininger)

02 After the implementation of the "dual channel" policy, will special drugs really have a "heavy volume pull" at the retail end?

1.

Table 3 shows the changes in the sales volume of 19 specialty drugs in the sample pharmacies in 2021, and the sales volume is defined as the sales quantity of the smallest packaging unit

Table 3: Changes in sales volume (minimum packaging unit) of 19 specialty drugs in sample pharmacies in the first half (H1) and second half (H2) of 2021

Note: No sample pharmacy sales data were monitored for tetrabenazine (Teva), edaravone (CP Fenghai), and clopasvir (Kaininger) in the first half of 2021

2.

Table 4 shows the change in sales of 19 specialty drugs in sample pharmacies in 2021

Table 4: Changes in sales (RMB) of 19 specialty drugs in sample pharmacies in the first half (H1) and second half (H2) of 2021

Note: No sample pharmacy sales data were monitored for tetrabenazine (Teva), edaravone (CP Fenghai), and clopasvir (Kaininger) in the first half of 2021

03 After the implementation of the "dual channel" policy, has the price of special drugs really decreased?

1.

Table 5 shows the unit price changes of 19 specialty drugs in sample pharmacies in Q1 and Q2 in 2021

Table 5: Unit price (RMB) changes of 19 specialty drugs in sample pharmacies in Q1 and Q2021

Note: No sample pharmacy sales data were monitored for tetrabenazine (Teva), edaravone (CP Fenghai), and clopasvir (Kaininger) in the first half of 2021

2.

Table 6 shows the comparison of the unit prices of 19 special drugs at the retail end and the hospital end in 2020-2021

Table 6: 2020-2021 retail-side and hospital-side unit price (yuan) comparison of 19 special drugs

Note: 1.

In conclusion, the answers to the "soul torture" of the above three "dual-channel" policies are all positive: the "dual-channel" policy has indeed made the distribution of specialty medicines wider at the retail side, the effect of "heavy volume-pulling" is obvious, and the unit price Both fell sharply