The reform of centralized procurement is imperative for the centralized procurement of proprietary Chinese medicines without restricted areas

01 Savings cost over 2.
6 billion

Recently, Hubei led the bid opening for the centralized procurement of proprietary Chinese medicines in 19 provinces.
According to a report by China Medical Insurance, 182 products from 157 companies participated in the bidding for this round of centralized procurement of proprietary Chinese medicines in 19 provinces, with a procurement scale of nearly 10 billion yuan; the final 97 Companies and 111 products were selected, with a selection rate of 62%.
The average price dropped by 42.
27%, with the largest drop of 82.
63%
.

76 proprietary Chinese medicines in 17 product groups ushered in price changes
.

Through the calculation of the annual demand of the 19-province alliance by relevant parties, it is estimated that the annual cost of medicines can be saved by more than 2.
6 billion yuan
.

As the largest Chinese patent medicine centralized procurement alliance in the country after small-scale testing of water procurement of Chinese patent medicines in Qinghai, Zhejiang Jinhua, Henan Puyang and other provinces and cities, an authoritative industry expert told Cyberland today that Hubei-led Chinese patent medicine collection The harvesting effect has a great influence on the subsequent centralized procurement of proprietary Chinese medicines
.

The person in charge of the Department of Pharmaceutical Price and Bidding and Procurement of the National Medical Insurance Administration said that in the long run, centralized procurement with volume is conducive to the high-quality development of the Chinese patent medicine industry
.

Since the first round of "4+7" in 2018, due to the difficulty in evaluating the quality of Chinese patent medicines and the uniqueness of many exclusive varieties, the pace of inclusion of Chinese patent medicines in volume purchases has been slow
.

This time, the centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines in 19 provinces including Hubei came to an end in the dispute, which to some extent also indicates that the prohibited area for centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines has been completely broken.
form into the centralized acquisition framework
.

At present, the centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines in the 6-province alliance led by Guangdong and Shanxi, Henan, Hainan, Ningxia and Qinghai is also in progress
.

02 Merger bidding is the biggest highlight

Looking back at this round of centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines, after Hubei took the lead in organizing the centralized procurement of nucleic acid detection reagents, insulin, coronary dilation balloons and other categories in the country, the inter-provincial alliance of Chinese patent medicines in 19 provinces led by Hubei has also made some innovative explorations
.

The most important of which is the consolidation and centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines with similar functions and indications of different names.
The procurement catalogue of 76 kinds of Chinese patent medicines in 17 product groups was finally determined
.

Specifically, there are two main ways of merging.
One is to merge varieties with the same name and different dosage forms, and the other is to merge varieties with the same name and different names.
Among them, the combination of prescriptions, main functions, and medical insurance classifications are all merged.
important basis for species
.

For example, the Ginkgo biloba leaves involved in 57 pharmaceutical companies, and the formulas involved are all "Ginkgo biloba extracts", which are classified in the medical insurance catalogue as "Medicines for Internal Medicine > Blood Stasis Removing Agents > Blood Stasis Tongmai Agents", and the main functions are very good.
are similar, so they are merged
.

The merger and centralized procurement has solved the long-standing problem of numerous generic names for proprietary Chinese medicines, and has also effectively expanded competition
.

In addition, comprehensive scores, the introduction of medical institution recognition indicators, and the proposal of average daily treatment costs are all new explorations for the centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines
.

03 The price difference of the selected product is 10 times?

In addition to beneficial rule innovations, the centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines in 19 provinces including Hubei is not small - the main dispute lies in the price difference of the selected products
.

On the evening of December 27, 2021, the official selection results of the centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines in Hubei were announced.
Soon, some companies reported that the prices of different selected products in individual product groups varied greatly, and in the most extreme cases, it was even 10 times
.

Some companies told Cyberland that for the winning companies in Group A, the prices were relatively low in order to secure the winning bids this time, but in Group B, there were cases of high-priced winning bids, among which there were 7-8 varieties with obvious price differences
.

According to the provisions of the centralized procurement documents of the 19-province alliance, group A is mainly companies with a large market share, while group B is the opposite
.

An industry insider who did not wish to be named pointed out to Cyberland that the core reason for the large price difference of the products selected in the centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines in this round is that the decline of enterprises is calculated according to the benchmark prices of their respective products
.

In this way, since some of the companies in Group B themselves do not have a large market share, and there is a situation where the online price is too high, the benchmark price will naturally be high
.

However, the centralized procurement document also stipulates that the selection rule for Group B enterprises is "if the number of shortlisted enterprises is less than or equal to 4, the price reduction of the shortlisted enterprises shall reach the lowest reduction rate of the top 70% of the shortlisted enterprises in all A competition units of the 17 product groups, and they shall be eligible to be selected.
; If it is not reached, enter the negotiation stage, accept the median drop of the shortlisted enterprises in all A competition units of the 17 product groups, and obtain the qualification to be selected
.

That said, Group B companies face a milder rate of decline than Group A companies that would otherwise have had a larger market share
.

Some industry experts bluntly told Cyberland that the benchmark price of Group B companies is high, and the reduction requirements are moderate.
Even if the company significantly reduces prices, it may be higher than the selected price of Group A companies - because the benchmark price of different manufacturers in the same product group is already Many times different
.

In fact, it is still relatively common for similar products with competitive relationships in the industry to have price differences, because now the provincial recruiting and purchasing require direct application for hanging online products for newly added products, and it is not ruled out that some companies are in the process of directly negotiating sales with hospitals.
In China, there is a situation that the price is higher and higher.
Generally, this problem is not obvious in the market of a single province, but the price difference in the whole country is further magnified
.

The above-mentioned industry insiders also told Cyberland that the rules for the centralized procurement of the Chinese patent medicine alliance are different from the previous centralized procurement of chemical drugs.
There is no requirement that the selection price of enterprises with a low grouping level cannot be higher than the selection price of enterprises with a high grouping level
.

In addition, although this centralized procurement adopts a comprehensive scoring method - the price competition score accounts for 60%, and the technical evaluation score accounts for 40%.
, product quality and safety, etc.
, but in the actual bidding, the competition between enterprises still mainly revolves around the decline
.

In addition to the absolute price difference of the selected products, there is another question, that is, which products have high prices, and whether such high prices are related to product quality, medical institution recognition, clinical efficacy, and production costs
.

Regarding the long-standing obvious price difference of proprietary Chinese medicines, an expert in the field of Chinese herbal medicines, Mr.
Duan, pointed out to Cyberland today that brand awareness, processing procedures, quality specifications, and sources of raw materials all affect the pricing of proprietary Chinese medicines, such as Liuwei Dihuang.
The same is true for pills and recipes.
Due to the use of different grades of raw materials, the price may vary from one third to half
.

If it comes to the market of Chinese herbal medicines, a Chinese herbal medicine may even have a "high price and land price" just because of different specifications
.

In response to the price difference of the selected products, the person in charge of the Department of Pharmaceutical Price and Bidding and Purchasing of the National Medical Insurance Administration said: The purpose of centralized procurement of Chinese patent medicines is not to level the price, let alone level the cost and profit of production enterprises, but to focus on eliminating or Reducing the unreasonably high part between the actual ex-factory price and the terminal sales price of the enterprise, improving the unreasonable sales model, so that the selected products can get no less than the original market and more sales without excessive marketing.
It is a collective The process of going "puffy"
.

In the next step, all localities will further improve the procurement rules on the basis of continuous summarization, and strive to achieve a balance of more diverse goals
.

04 Quantity distribution is critical

Hubei's current round of centralized procurement and procurement of proprietary Chinese medicines takes 2 years.
With the finalization of the selection results, the distribution of quantity has become the most concerned issue for the selection of pharmaceutical companies
.

According to the provisions of the centralized procurement documents, the distribution of the agreed procurement volume is mainly beneficial to enterprises with a high decline rate, hospitals and institutions willing to choose independently, and large production capacity
.

Some pharmaceutical companies expressed to Cyberland that they hoped that the medical insurance departments of various provinces would have centralized procurement assessment standards at the hospital level when they were implemented, and preferred companies with high recognition and low prices.
The selected products are mainly used with high quality and low price, and are highly recognized by medical institutions
.

Jiang Changsong, director of the Price Recruitment and Procurement Office of the National Medical Security Research Institute, said that in the process of checking the remaining amount and purchasing and using it, the medical insurance department will further guide medical institutions and medical personnel to give priority to the selected products with good quality and reasonable price
.

The reform of centralized procurement with volume has advanced from the initial centralized procurement of chemical drugs to the centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables, biological preparations, and then to the centralized procurement of proprietary Chinese medicines, fully demonstrating that the centralized procurement reform has "no restricted areas"
.

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