The retail market for 240 billion drugs is bucking the trend of price cuts

Improving the access of medicines and meeting people's drug demand has always been the focus of national and people's attention.
drug prices are one of the most important factors affecting the accessability of medicines.
in recent years, the implementation of national policies such as volume procurement, medical insurance negotiations, and drug zero-rate are all efforts at the national level to improve drug access.
as the second largest terminal for drug sales, the price reduction of drugs in retail pharmacies is the trend.
The size of the pharmacy market exceeded 300 billion, drug prices fell slightly According to the forecast data of Minet, in 2020 China's urban physical pharmacy terminal sales amounted to 315.5 billion (including drugs, health care products, Chinese medicine tablets and medical devices), drugs are still the "main role" of retail pharmacies, accounting for more than 70% of the market share.
the average unit price of end-drug drugs in china's urban physical pharmacies decreased by 0.79% YoY in 2020, and the average unit price of drugs will decline in Q1 in 2020, according to the Q2-2020 Q4 quarter-on-quarter price index.
as a whole, the prices of end-drug drugs in china's urban physical pharmacies have been relatively stable in the past two years, with the quarter-on-quarter price index for 2019-2020 ranging from 90-110 to within 10%.
Q2-2020 Q2-2020 Q4 China's urban physical pharmacy terminal drug quarter-on-quarter price index change trend description: quarter-on-quarter price index - average unit price for the quarter / average unit price for the previous quarter . . . 100 Source: Mienet Retail Drug Monitoring System ( . Sales of physical pharmacies, including urban and county) chemicals: anti-tumor and immunomodulants decreased significantly, cardiovascular system drugs counter-trend growth of national volume procurement of chemical drugs mainly, according to the Minenet retail drug monitoring data show that in 2020, the average unit price of end-of-life chemical drugs in china's urban physical pharmacies decreased by 2.01% YoY.
Q3 began in 2019, the quarterly price index showed a downward trend, although the index rebounded from Q2 2020, but in absolute terms, the price of Q1-Q4 in 2020 has not basically returned to the 2019 Q4 level.
with the normalization and institutionalization of national collection, more and more chain pharmacies follow up with the winning price of selected varieties, pharmacy chemicals will inevitably face price reduction.
Q2-2020 Q4 China Urban Physical Pharmacy Terminal Chemicals Quarterly Price Index Change Trend Source: Mienet Retail Drug Monitoring System (10,000 Retail Physical Pharmacies, Including Cities and Counties) China Urban Physical Pharmacy Terminal Chemicals TOP5 Category For respiratory drugs, anti-tumor and immunomodulators, systemic anti-infective drugs, digestive and metabolic drugs, cardiovascular drugs, the market share is expected to be 25.8%, 15.4%, 13.8%, 9.4% and 7.0% in 2020, respectively.
price fluctuations are most evident in anti-tumor and immunomodulants, which will have an average unit price of nearly 20% year-on-year in 2020.
the establishment of the National Health Insurance Administration in 2018, began organizing access negotiations for anti-tumor drugs.
17 drugs will be negotiated for inclusion in the health insurance list in 2018.
of the 17 anti-tumor drugs, a small number of first-line anti-tumor drugs have been reduced by more than 60%.
2020 negotiations, 17 new anti-tumor drugs were added, including a variety of immuno-checkpoint inhibitors, bio-targeted preparations, etc.
under the dual pressure of national negotiation and national collection, the price reduction of anti-tumor drugs in pharmacies became inevitable.
Q2-2020 Q4 China City Physical Pharmacy Terminal Chemical Anti-Tumor and Immunomodulant Quarterly Price Index Change Trend Source: Minernet Retail Drug Monitoring System Physical pharmacies, including cities and counties) cardiovascular system drugs in China's urban physical pharmacy terminals, the average unit price does not fall back up, the price performance is relatively strong, Q2-2020 Q4 Q4 Q4 price index in 2019 are above 100.
Although cardiovascular drugs are the focus of national collection categories, the first three batches of selected varieties as many as 16, including Atovastatin, Erbeshatan, Ebersathan hydrochlorochlorin, Reshuvastatin, etc., but selected varieties are generic drugs, in the hospital market lost the original research drugs gradually turned to intensive retail pharmacy market, and product strategies more targeted, such as product specifications conversion.
-meter net forecast data show that in 2020, China's urban physical pharmacy terminal part of the market share of the original varieties of the original research drugs showed an upward trend, such as Sanofi's Ebershatan tablets, Pfizer's Atovastatin calcium tablets, AstraZeneol's Reschuvastatin calcium tablets, these products in China's urban physical pharmacies terminal market share increased by 2%-5%, the market position is more stable.
2019 Q2-2020 Q4 China's urban physical pharmacies terminal chemical cardiovascular system drug quarterly price index change trend Source: MiNet retail drug monitoring system (10,000 retail brick-and-mortar pharmacies, including cities and counties) Chinese medicine: price stability, rehydration Blood drug price rational decline in recent years, under the change of policy environment, the rationality of clinical drug use is more and more attention, drug add-on is completely eliminated, DRGs and other medical insurance payment method reform continues to advance, drugs have been changed from income items to cost items, which has also led to the change of doctor's prescription drug mentality, cost-effective drugs are becoming more and more popular, Chinese medicine in the hospital market frustration.
from the macro-policy level, Chinese medicine as a whole is encouraged, in the 14th Five-Year Plan stressed the need to adhere to the Chinese and Western medicine, and vigorously develop the cause of Chinese medicine.
but at the practical application level, the hospital departments are limited by the proportion of drugs, the drug ability is not clear Prescription of Chinese medicine is relatively cautious, can not be used without.
the hospital market, the sale of Chinese medicine in the retail pharmacy market also appeared to be somewhat frustrated.
, according to The InnerNet forecast data, the share of Chinese medicine in the terminals of physical pharmacies in Chinese cities will show a downward trend in 2020.
0.52% year-on-year decline in the average unit price of a drug in 2020.
quarter-on-quarter price index for 2019-2020 fluctuated little, with the exception of the Q1 and Q3 indices below 100 in 2020, all quarterly indices remained above 100.
, it can be seen that the decline in the market share of Chinese medicine in physical pharmacies is mainly affected by the decline in volume.
Q2-2020 Q2-2020 Q4 China's urban brick-and-mortar terminals, the quarterly trend of changes in the price index of Chinese medicines, the main category leading to the decline in the average unit price of chinese medicines in brick-and-mortar pharmacies in 2020 by the Mienet Retail Drug Monitoring System (10,000 retail brick-and-mortar pharmacies, including cities and counties).
, the quarterly price index of rehydration and blood-replenishing drugs showed a more obvious quarterly, the average unit price of Q4 increased, mainly due to the impact of A gum sales.
A gum as the largest variety of rehydration blood drugs, market share accounted for half of the mountain, and the sales season mainly in the autumn and winter festival, with obvious seasonal characteristics.
On August 20, 2019, the State Health Insurance Administration released a new version of the health insurance catalog, including A gum, 150 varieties were transferred out of health insurance, consumers bid farewell to the "brush health insurance to buy a gum" life, which caused the market demand to shrink;
can be said that the development of the health care products market, not only affect the sale of A gum, the entire rehydration drug market is also a shock.
2019 Q2-2020 Q4 China's urban brick-and-mortar drugs terminals in the chinese medicine rehydration blood-replenishing drug quarter-on-quarter price index change trend source: Minet retail drug monitoring system (10,000 retail physical pharmacies, including cities and counties) to face the dual pressure of medical insurance control fees, volume procurement, pharmaceutical enterprises have laid out the retail market, opportunities and challenges for the retail market.
, on the one hand, retail pharmacies can choose more high-quality varieties, on the other hand, in the face of the price linkage, retail pharmacies drug prices can not escape the fate of price reduction.
addition, the national collection of varieties to attract some patients back to medical institutions, under the outbreak of consumers online drug consumption habits have been cultivated.
, the decline in gross margins and reduced passenger traffic have troubled the operation of retail pharmacies.
the correct positioning of retail pharmacies, how to achieve a balance between price and quantity, how to reasonably choose varieties to optimize product structure, are all problems that retail pharmacies need to think about and solve.