context: These new measures largely follow suggestions outlined in State Council’s August 2019 executive meeting, addressing the shortage of commonly used drugs by pushing production and prescription while suppressing prices. Producers and hospitals could be left with little room to profit. The API production approval systems also remain unchanged, limiting the effects of these measures.
State Council issued ‘Opinions on stabilising supply and prices of drugs in shortage’ on 11 Oct 2019.
Among 3,200 commonly used drugs, more than 200 drugs have experienced a significant price hike this year, reports National Business Daily. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) monopoly is a major cause, and Shi Lichen 史立臣 frequent healthcare commentator said previous punishments for this were insufficient, considering the large profit API providers gain from monopolies. State Council now pledges to enhance law enforcement. Measures to regulate drug use and support manufacturing are also expected to ease the current crisis.
The opinions call for
- increasing sensitivity and timeliness of monitoring on drug supply and prices
- enhancing coordinated monitoring
- setting up multiple grades of response
- setting up different categories of response according to specific situations
- managing a list of drugs in shortage
- implementing termination of manufacturing reports to deal with possible consequences
- improving clinical use of essential drugs
- promoting prioritised supply and rational use of essential drugs
- improving hospital management and use of drugs in shortage
- improving procurement of drugs in shortage
- allowing hospitals to procure drugs in shortage on provincial centralised procurement platforms
- allowing hospitals to directly procure drugs in shortage from manufacturers if the drugs are not centrally procured or no manufacturers are producing them
- ensuring procurement contracts are carried out
- enhancing price supervision and law enforcement
- enhancing monitoring and warning of irregular changes in drug prices
- enhancing long-term drug prices supervision
- enhancing law enforcement against illegal practices such as monopolising API
- resolving drug price hikes according to specific situations
- improving multi-level supply system of drugs in shortage
- setting up a long-term storage mechanism
- improving production capacity and quality
- enhancing API supply