Drug circulation reform plan announced recently

At present, the "Several Opinions on Promoting Reform in the Field of Drug Distribution", which has received much attention, has been repeatedly revised and has been signed and signed by many departments such as the State Council's Medical Reform Office, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Commerce.

Industry insiders pointed out that there are three major breakthroughs in the "Opinions". If they can be put in place, they will have a huge impact on pharmaceutical production and distribution companies, and to some extent solve the problem of high drug prices.

It is reported that the "Notice" will propose innovative drug pricing methods and establish an online monitoring system for drug ex-factory prices.

The high drug prices are mainly because the gap between the ex-factory price and the drug bid price is too large, leaving a lot of profits for intermediate circulation. These intermediate links include hospitals, doctors, distribution companies, and pharmaceutical sales personnel. In other words, the final consumer of the drug pays for intermediate circulation.

It is understood that the price authority will regularly release information such as the average ex-factory price of drugs to guide the market in forming a reasonable price. For enterprises that do not submit the factory price or the ex-factory price according to the regulations and the price difference between the centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and the bid price, the qualification of the bid shall be cancelled.

"The most important factor for the market is that the profits of drug distribution companies will be reduced." Insiders pointed out, but as the competent department of drug prices can bear this heavy responsibility, how to assess the "excessive gap" is also worth Consultation.

The reporter was informed that in the future, the role of the market mechanism will be fully utilized. With regard to drugs with large clinical usage, refer to the prices of leading enterprises, drug purchase prices, retail pharmacy sales prices and other market transaction prices, and formulate and timely adjust the retail ceiling price. Establish a regular price adjustment system, adjust the prices of drugs according to market transaction prices such as medical institutions and retail pharmacy purchase prices, and reasonably guide the price expectations of production and operation companies and medical institutions.

WIND statistics show that according to the industry classification of Shenyin Wanguo [Weibo], at present, listed pharmaceutical distribution companies mainly include Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, Sinopharm Co., Ltd., and Huadong Medicine. From the situation of the nine companies that have announced the 2012 annual report, they have achieved a year-on-year increase in net profit, and achieved a total net profit of 3.588 billion yuan, an overall increase of 12%.

Among them, Shanghai Pharmaceutical's net profit was 2.053 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of only 0.52%, and the profit growth rate of other companies was 20% to 40%.

A brokerage analyst believes that the above policy may have an adverse effect on drug distribution companies. However, he said that drug manufacturers and distribution companies have already anticipated this, and it is not ruled out that drug manufacturers can reduce the difference between the bid price and the bid price in order to avoid these policies. As a result, the problem of high drug prices cannot be solved fundamentally.

It is reported that the "Notice" will propose to explore the establishment of a negotiation mechanism for medical insurance agencies, medical institutions, and pharmaceutical suppliers.

In response, a hospital director who participated in the pilot reform of the Beijing Public Hospital once pointed out that the hospital had conducted some negotiations with the medical insurance institutions and suppliers when purchasing medicines, and achieved the effect of reducing drug prices. However, because of the interests of many parties involved, the negotiation mechanism is not likely to be fully rolled out.

Industry sources told reporters that the "opinions" require the exploration of the establishment of a negotiation mechanism. This is in fact an opening for the "secondary bargaining." “Secondary bargaining” refers to the price of a medical institution on the basis of the results of provincial drug bidding, and once again the price of the successful drug is entered into the hospital procurement list.

However, the reporter learned that most drug manufacturers are opposed to the "secondary bargaining" policy.

Cai Dongchen, chairman of Shijiazhuang Group Co., Ltd., said that “secondary bargaining” violated social justice and integrity, and also violated the bidding and contract law. If the "secondary bargaining" is implemented after the completion of the bidding, it is actually a failure to recognize the result of the bidding.

Xu Jingren, chairman of the Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group, said that companies that focus on new drug research and development cannot accept "secondary bargaining." If you desperately drive down the profits of your company, you will not be able to invest in new drug research and development.

Liu Xinxin, chairman of Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., said that if the ex-factory price of drugs can be reasonably determined and the profit in the circulation field be clearly defined, the bidding, procurement, and supply systems for medicines will be further improved and the entire chain will be resolved. There is no need for "secondary bargaining".

It is worth noting that the retail pharmacy will also be an important channel for patients to purchase drugs.

“In the past, we all used retail pharmacies as a supplement to hospital pharmacies and we did not look at retail pharmacies.” Industry insiders believe that the status of retail pharmacies should now be raised to the “important channel” position. This policy signal will have a bearing on the development of retail pharmacies. There are great opportunities, especially pharmaceutical retail chains.

In order to encourage the development of retail pharmacies, the Opinions proposed that outpatients should be allowed to purchase medicines in medical institutions or pharmacies on their own, and medical institutions must not restrict the outflow of prescriptions in any way and fight against the sale of various types of monopoly drugs.

According to reports, the listed retail chain drugstores mainly include Jia Shi Tang, Tong Ren Tang, and Tong Jun Ge. From the 2012 annual report, the net profit of the above three companies increased by 2.40%, 30.13%, and 190.27%, respectively. In addition, among the IPO queuing companies, there are drug retail chains, such as the people's large pharmacy chain and Yunnan Hongxiang Yixintang Pharmaceutical (Group).