Imported drugs have not reduced prices due to tax cuts, pricing reforms need to be accelerated

According to the medical network of June 12, the tariffs for 28 types of imported drugs have dropped to zero, which is a very good livelihood policy. How to allow good policies to exert 'pharmacological effects' as soon as possible depends on further speeding up the reform of the drug pricing mechanism.

According to the relevant regulations of the State Council, since May 1 this year, China’s tariffs on 28 types of imported drugs have dropped to zero, which includes commonly used drugs for treating cancer. However, now more than a month has passed, and some media found during the investigation that For those medicines that enjoyed the new tariffs on import tariffs, the prices for sales to patients remained untouched, and the relevant families were rather lost.

A good policy for the benefit of the people can not be translated into benefits for the people. This is indeed anxious.

In a hurry, people will naturally wonder why the tariffs on imported cars there have just come out of the New Deal. The prices of many cars on this side have dropped. The prices of imported anti-cancer drugs involved in saving people's lives are so dull.

This is because China’s auto prices are completely market-adjusted, and drug prices must also follow government pricing. The problem is that drug prices are not yet a department’s final say. They need to be in the National Health and Nutrition Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the medical insurance department. On the basis of consultations with various departments, negotiation or concentration with manufacturers Bidding purchase In the formulation, the intermediate process is relatively complex. It takes several months to prepare and implement each adjustment of drug prices. For a New Deal that began on May 1, it is not easy to make corresponding adjustments in the short term. Moreover, this time The original starting point for drug adjustments is the adjustment of tax rates, in addition to tariffs, VAT, the need for coordination, or more.

At the same time, sales of imported medicines in China are generally abroad. enterprise Set up a branch office in China or look for proxy In order to implement it, its price is also filed in the country for the first time, and it is not entirely in accordance with the cost. Now that the change of tax and fee requires the other party to carry out price adjustment, it obviously needs a negotiation and negotiation process. In particular, some international pharmaceutical companies have The pharmaceutical industry is the only one in the world, and it also has a strong say in price.

In response to this situation, relevant departments may need to make appropriate adjustments to the management of drug prices.

Firstly, relying on the market appropriately, the prices of medicines are more in line with market laws. As a matter of fact, as early as May 2015, China issued the “Notice of Advancing Drug Price Reform Opinions”, clearly stating that from June 1, 2015, anesthesia was eliminated. In addition to pharmaceuticals and psychotropic drugs, the remaining drugs have eliminated government pricing, while improving the drug procurement mechanism and exerting the effect of medical insurance control fees, strengthening the supervision of the drug market price, and guiding drug prices to be more reasonable. However, so far, the market pricing mechanism of drugs has not been truly form.

Secondly, for drug administration, departments should be reduced as far as possible, and unified management should be implemented. For example, in neighboring Japan, its drug supervision work is under the unified responsibility of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The responsibilities cover drug registration approval, medical insurance management, and drug pricing. This guarantees policy development. When the information flowed smoothly, it was able to fully consider the level of market supply and demand and fundraising, and achieved good results. It is noteworthy that China’s newly established National Medical Security Bureau is expected to integrate medical protection functions that were previously dispersed across multiple sectors. Provide timely management capability of drug management for policy changes.

Finally, China's protection of pharmaceutical patents should be appropriate. However, for some irreplaceable medical drugs, when negotiating prices with related manufacturers, it is advisable to learn some foreign experience, set mandatory imitation clauses when necessary, and increase the market's ability to adjust prices.

The tariffs of 28 categories of imported drugs are reduced to zero, which is a very good livelihood policy. How to make good policies as soon as possible to exert 'pharmacological effects' depends on further speeding up drug Pricing mechanism reform.