Oncology drugs and other market price adjustment weight increase

While the country is committed to improving the level of medical insurance protection for major diseases, the "Notice on Regulating the Prices of Anti-Cancer, Blood System, and Other Drugs, and Related Issues," issued by the National Development and Reform Commission recently, has caused great concern in the industry. The newspaper invited industry experts to elaborate on the aspects of pharmacoeconomics, individual pricing and pricing of medicines, and the industrial ecology after price reduction, so as to provide valuable information for readers to understand related situations.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Circular on Adjusting the Prices of Drugs Related to Immunization, Anti-Tumor, and Hematology, and Related Issues." The industry has waited for more than half a year and the catalog of drug price reductions has finally come to an end.

The current round of price adjustment involves a total of 95 varieties and more than 200 representative dosage forms. The average price reduction rate is 17%, and the new maximum retail price will be implemented starting from October 8 this year.

The products of foreign companies or joint ventures are the main targets of adjustment. Overall, the average price reduction range, product range involved, and price adjustment ideas basically continue the previous rounds of price adjustments for medical insurance products, taking market factors as a reference and prices as a boost. The intention of industry development leverage is more obvious, and the price adjustment is basically within the industry's expectations.

Price does not exceed the expected <br> <br> anticancer drugs, immunosuppressants and blood system drugs is the largest domestic drug money is also one concentrated area of high-priced drugs, especially anticancer drugs, disease spectrum changes with China The market has grown rapidly.

According to data from the Southern Food and Economic Research Institute of the State Food and Drug Administration, the overall growth rate of the anti-cancer drug market in China from 2005 to 2010 is 21.76%, which is higher than the global growth rate. In 2010, the domestic scale was 50.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.83%; in 2011 it exceeded 61 billion yuan.

In addition, anti-cancer drugs and other categories are also in the domestic research and development of many product areas, the price cuts and principles, to a certain extent, will reflect the country's future domestic anti-cancer drug pricing and medical insurance and other aspects of information.

Because of this, the industry has paid great attention to the price adjustment of anti-tumor drugs and other categories of this price adjustment. Anti-tumor drugs Before the current round of drug price adjustment notices fell, the industry has already circulated a number of different versions of price reduction plans and catalogues.

“Overall, price adjustments have basically exceeded industry expectations in terms of average price cuts, product coverage, and price adjustment ideas.”

The director of the government affairs of a foreign company told reporters that on the one hand, the anti-tumor drugs have not been adjusted since 2006, and the listing of generic pharmaceuticals by domestic manufacturers has increased significantly, and the willingness and measures of national medical insurance control fees are very obvious, especially the first few rounds of medical insurance. The price cuts for drugs have been made clear. Medicare drugs in the future have to be reduced in price, and foreign companies are actually expecting price reductions for these categories.

In addition, prior to the issuance of notifications, relevant state ministries and commissions have organized the responsible persons of related companies to conduct in-depth discussions and investigations, and finally formulated price adjustment catalogs on the basis of cost price surveys, expert review, and hearing opinions from relevant parties.

"For enterprises, the price adjustment of some varieties, for example, more than 30%, may have a certain impact on the future sales profits of pharmaceuticals. In addition, some of the ultra-high-priced products have a real impact because of their monopolistic nature. The director of government affairs said that the drugs within the average drop range have always existed because of tendering factors. This time, the price adjustment is still more of a follow-up price adjustment.

Market heavy weight factor <br> <br> increase the current round of price adjustment is a major highlight of prices of some products have a more substantial upgrade, mainly because the market demand in recent years, large, and product supply products.

For example, the price of 10 g of human immunoglobulin for intravenous injection increased from 1,050 yuan to 16,16 yuan per stick, which increased by 53.9%; the price of 200 IU human factor VIII injection increased from 194.12 yuan to 396 yuan per stick, a rise of 104.00%. The price of 0.5g human fibrinogen injection increased by 350 yuan from 147 yuan each, which increased by 138.1%; the price of 50mg: 5ml protamine also increased from 11.88 yuan to 13.1 yuan each, which was 10.27%.

These varieties are specific drugs, and their market substitution is very low. In recent years, there have been many times the phenomenon of market shortage, which has caused the state ministries and commissions to attach great importance.

"Blood products are resource-based products, but the reason for the shortage is that the original batch of companies with approvals no longer produce products. Protamine has only a few companies in the country because of its low profits.” said a sales director of a state-owned enterprise in Guangdong, this Several product prices have been raised, and the country hopes to use price leverage to guide companies to increase their productivity.

In fact, leveraging the leverage of market instruments such as prices is precisely the thinking that has been emphasized in the past rounds of drug price adjustments. This idea is also reflected in the increase in the price of original research products after the listing of generic drugs, or reduce the price difference between the original research products and imitation products.

In the current price adjustment, the price adjustment of imitation drugs in the past was generally larger than that of original research drugs. For example, the price of Sanofi’s low-molecular-weight heparin sodium specification of 4000 IU was reduced from 72.45 yuan to 59.9 yuan, and the reduction rate was 17.32%. Domestic Qianhong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Dongcheng Biochemical Co., Ltd. and other companies' product price adjustments are large. GSK's low-molecular-weight heparin calcium specification is 4,100 IU, down from 73.96 yuan to 62.9 yuan, while domestic products have not changed.

The above sales director stated that on the basis of cost accounting, market competition and supply situation, and product quality information, the weight of the impact on Medicare drug price adjustment will increase in the future.

“On the one hand, the quality of domestic drugs is rapidly increasing. In particular, the consistency evaluation of generic drugs will have a greater impact on drug pricing in the future; on the other hand, the advancement of measures such as the country’s major illness and medical insurance has brought new prices for drugs of major diseases. Requirements, the most effective is undoubtedly the use of market competition to affect the price of the product." The director said.