NDRC randomly investigates 60 pharmaceutical companies to strengthen price cut expectations

Source: China Pharmaceutical News, April 15, 2014, recently launched a special investigation on drug prices by the national development and Reform Commission, and 60 pharmaceutical enterprises were "determined" by the national development and Reform Commission, including more than 10 listed pharmaceutical enterprises such as MSD, GlaxoSmithKline, Sandoz and Yuheng pharmaceutical, Haizheng pharmaceutical and Southwest Pharmaceutical Among them, 33 pharmaceutical enterprises, such as Shuanglu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd and Wuliangye Group Yibin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., were investigated in terms of ex factory price, while 27 pharmaceutical enterprises, such as GlaxoSmithKline and Hengrui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., were investigated in terms of cost The above-mentioned list of 60 pharmaceutical enterprises is quite random The national development and Reform Commission aims to understand the cost and price in the process of drug production and circulation through this survey so as to make and adjust the drug price in time This survey does not indicate that the investigated enterprises have problems in cost and price But the industry has a lot of concerns about the investigation One view is that at present, the gross profit rate of quite a number of pharmaceutical enterprises, especially listed ones, is too high For example, the gross profit rate of 10 listed pharmaceutical enterprises, such as Hengrui pharmaceutical and Yibai pharmaceutical, exceeded 80% last year Among 176 listed pharmaceutical enterprises, the gross profit rate of more than 30% is more than 70% Therefore, the pharmaceutical industry is considered to be one of the profiteering industries But different from the expressway, liquor industry and other industries, the rigid demand attribute of the pharmaceutical industry is more obvious, which is directly related to the people's livelihood Its high gross profit characteristics are easy to be amplified and interpreted, and even considered as one of the factors of "expensive medical treatment" In fact, high drug prices and expensive medical treatment are caused by multiple reasons It is not fair for pharmaceutical companies to bear the stigma alone Before the special investigation launched by the national development and Reform Commission, high gross profit in the pharmaceutical industry was regarded as an industry phenomenon or social phenomenon With the special investigation organized by the national development and Reform Commission from July to October, the high gross profit in the pharmaceutical industry was given more political signals According to media speculation, the national development and Reform Commission will soon start to work on the pharmaceutical industry This kind of speculation is not without basis Just before the issuance of the notice of investigation on pharmaceutical enterprises, the development and Reform Commission has carried out an anti-monopoly investigation on dairy enterprises in advance, and dairy enterprises such as Wyeth, Domex and bainmei have successively reduced their prices Then contact the anti-monopoly punishment of some liquor enterprises by the national development and Reform Commission at the beginning of the year It is reasonable that the investigation of the pharmaceutical enterprises is regarded as the omen of price reduction in the pharmaceutical industry In fact, this survey on the pharmaceutical industry is not the first As early as April 2006, the national development and Reform Commission conducted a cost survey on 28 kinds of Western medicine and Chinese patent medicine After the survey, the national development and Reform Commission immediately reduced the retail price of 67 kinds of anti-tumor drugs In January this year, the national development and Reform Commission lowered the prices of drugs such as respiratory, antipyretic and analgesic drugs and special drugs At that time, the industry generally expected that Chinese patent medicine would follow suit However, among the 60 pharmaceutical enterprises investigated this time, there are relatively few traditional Chinese medicine enterprises, which are not the main objects of verification Some insiders pointed out that at present, the expectation of drug price reduction already exists, which is further strengthened by the special investigation of the national development and Reform Commission However, the pharmaceutical industry will not usher in a large-scale price reduction tide until the investigation results are published in October In addition, the 60 pharmaceutical enterprises selected by the national development and Reform Commission are not necessarily the enterprises with the highest gross profit rate in the pharmaceutical industry, and the final survey results are unlikely to form a result similar to that of liquor (Wu Ming)