The price adjustment plan of Chinese patent medicine is expected to come out by the end of this month. Large pharmaceutical enterprises are ready to deal with it

The price adjustment plan of "varieties of Chinese patent medicines in the national medical insurance catalog" which has been brewing for a long time is expected to come to an end within this month The reporter learned that the drug price evaluation center of the national development and Reform Commission had reviewed the list of the last batch of Chinese patent medicines to be depreciated on March 7 Around March 20, the drug price department of the national development and Reform Commission will organize a seminar to finalize the price adjustment plan According to people familiar with the matter, in this round of price adjustment plan, Chinese patent medicine with higher price before will usher in a decrease of about 15%, which may also be the "ceiling" of this round of price reduction The maximum reduction is about 15% "The list of the last batch of Chinese patent medicines has been reviewed on March 7, and after another expert discussion meeting held by the drug price department on March 22, the final price reduction plan will be almost finalized." Industry insiders close to the drug price department of the national development and Reform Commission told China Securities News that the basic idea of the current price adjustment plan is "rise and fall" Previously, the market rumors said that the main varieties such as anti-tumor drugs will lead the decline of more than 25% in this round of price adjustment storm The above insiders have negative opinions on this rumor "According to the current thinking, the maximum reduction of drugs with higher prices is about 15%, while drugs with lower prices allow manufacturers to set their own prices within the range of 3-5 yuan," he said This round of price adjustment of Chinese patent medicine can be traced back to January 2013, when the national development and Reform Commission completed the adjustment of Western medicine price in the medical insurance catalog, the price reduction plan of Chinese patent medicine was put on the agenda immediately From the previous regulation of drug price adjustment, the price adjustment of Chinese patent medicine is generally carried out in batches, and the large varieties of anti-tumor drugs may be the first to bear the brunt, followed by the small varieties of gynecological drugs Among the commonly used Chinese patent medicines, cardio cerebrovascular drugs, anti-tumor drugs, respiratory drugs and gastrointestinal drugs ranked the top three in total sales In the first half of 2013, 36.63% of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular drugs were used in tertiary medical institutions, 41.89% in secondary medical institutions and 46.92% in primary medical institutions, 18.57% in tertiary medical institutions, 7.98% in secondary medical institutions, 7.77% in primary medical institutions and 6.98% in county-level medical institutions Among the basic drugs, Chinese patent medicine occupies half of the total On February 8, Inner Mongolia announced the sales statistics results of 50 batches of basic drugs since the implementation of the basic drug system, with Xuesaitong injection, Mailuoning injection, Xueshuantong injection and compound Danshen Dropping Pills in the top four As for the impact of the new deal, Gu bin, a senior pharmaceutical investor, believes that the current price adjustment policy is relatively moderate and should be divided into two parts: on the one hand, drugs such as anti-tumor, cardio cerebrovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal drugs may face price cuts, which may affect the performance of relevant listed companies On the other hand, the price of low-cost drugs is expected to increase moderately after obtaining the independent pricing power For example, the daily expenditure of quick acting heart saving pill of China new pharmaceutical industry (11.80, 0.00, 0.00%) is about 2.5 yuan Once the independent pricing range is 100%, it is still acceptable to ordinary consumers Moreover, as an indication drug for coronary heart disease, the potential market scale of Suxiaojiuxin pill is 200 million people, and its use is not only in the field of heart disease A number of listed pharmaceutical companies said that their performance would not be affected by the above price adjustment plan Executives of several listed companies said in an interview that even if anti-tumor and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular drugs were used to "sacrifice flags" in this round of price adjustment, their performance would not be impacted Tongrentang (18.24, 0.00, 0.00%) said that according to the company's bid price in each province, there is a large space between the bid price and the government guidance price "For example, the government guidance price of a drug is 10 yuan, but Tongrentang's bidding price may only be 5 yuan At this time, the price will be reduced by 15%, that is to say, from 10 yuan to 8.5 yuan, and our bid price is already 5 yuan, so the price adjustment plan will not have a substantial impact on us " The executives said Tongrentang executives' comments may be seen from the bidding price of Hubei basic drugs in 2011 In the same year, the actual bid price of basic drugs in the province decreased by 45.8% compared with the national guide price, which also exists in medical insurance drugs These kinds of products tend to be significantly lowered the government guidance price, but in fact, the bid price has been significantly lower than the government guidance price, so the impact on the sales performance of listed companies is very small In addition, the exclusive variety of traditional Chinese medicine is also expected to be "still strong" in this round of price reduction According to the current bidding mode, the price maintenance ability of exclusive varieties is strong because they are priced separately in the bidding process According to the bidding results of basic drugs in Guangdong Province, the price of chemicals is generally reduced by about 10%, while the overall decrease of exclusive varieties of traditional Chinese medicine is not large, less than 5% Among them, the decrease of Compound Danshen dropping pills of Tianshili (41.94, 0.00, 0.00%) and Tongxinluo capsule of Yiling Pharmaceutical (31.46, 0.00, 0.00%) was no more than 1% For non exclusive varieties, if they suffer from price reduction unfortunately, they may not be "pessimistic" There is another way to offset the adverse effects of price reduction 2014 is the year of drug bidding With the new edition of the national essential drug catalogue officially launched last year, the inclination of traditional Chinese medicine varieties is obvious to all Compared with the 2009 version of the basic medicine catalog, the new version of the catalog added 101 varieties of traditional Chinese medicine For the products entering the catalogue, even if they encounter a 15% price reduction, they can quickly complete the layout of the medical market at all levels of the country with the help of basic drug channels, and the sales scale will expand rapidly to achieve the goal of small profits and high sales, so as to achieve the purpose of exchanging price for quantity The industry reshuffle will speed up According to a senior executive of a listed company who did not want to be named, the profit margin of most Chinese patent medicines in the current pharmaceutical market is quite considerable, especially for the traditional Chinese medicine injection, such as Tanreqing injection of Shanghai Kaibao (17.190, 0.00, 0.00%) with a gross margin of 80%; Zhongheng group (13.39, 0.00, 0.00%) with a gross margin of 85% "Such a big profit margin, a 15% drop is only a drizzle." The executive said However, Chen Xujun, a senior pharmaceutical investor, told reporters: "the price adjustment plan is generally adequate for listed companies, but it may be a disaster for small enterprises." According to Chen Xujun, the price reduction of Chinese patent medicine has been put on the agenda for a long time, and many listed companies have been prepared for this, saving costs and maximizing profits through scientific management and control from raw material procurement, production process, and end product sales However, for the small manufacturers and distributors in the industry of Chinese patent medicine, especially for the upstream manufacturers of Chinese patent medicine, the days are obviously a little sad Chen Xujun said that due to the impact of the economic environment, the difficulties in the operation of traditional Chinese medicine increased, the supply was excessive, the labor cost increased and the competition was fierce Many problems led to difficulties in the operation of traditional Chinese medicine dealers The price reduction of proprietary Chinese medicine will further reduce the profits of its APIs, force small and medium-sized manufacturers to withdraw from the market, and help large enterprises take the opportunity to improve the industry concentration.