What about the shortage of commonly used drugs？ The State Council will speed up the centralized procurement of drugs, and suspend the network when necessary for unreasonable price increases.

In addition to measures such as speeding up the centralized procurement of drugs, the the State Council executive meeting pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen the normalization supervision and price enforcement of drug prices, and impose huge fines, market bans and even criminal penalties on acts such as monopoly and manipulation of drug market prices. Experts believe that this move will play an effective deterrent role for those pharmaceutical companies with monopoly impulses.

On August 16th, Premier Li Keqiang presided over the the State Council executive meeting, and determined measures to strengthen the supply guarantee and stabilize the prices of commonly used drugs, so as to ensure people’s demand for drugs and reduce the burden.

The meeting pointed out that the establishment and improvement of a long-term mechanism for ensuring the supply and price stability of commonly used drugs such as essential drugs and emergency drugs is related to the health and safety of the people and is a major livelihood concern. In view of the shortage of some commonly used drugs and unreasonable price increase, it is necessary to improve the drug procurement policy and speed up the pilot project of centralized drug procurement and use.

The meeting stressed that enterprises are allowed to make independent and reasonable pricing for the varieties in the national and provincial shortage drug lists and directly invite public bidding for procurement. At the same time, we will strengthen the normalization supervision and price enforcement of drug prices, urge unreasonable price increases to be corrected as soon as possible according to laws and regulations, and take measures such as public exposure and suspension of internet access when necessary.

In an interview with national business daily, Shi Lichen, the founder of the third-party medical service platform, said that many drugs in short supply are low-priced drugs, and the shortage is related to unprofitable pharmaceutical companies and insufficient production motivation. Allowing enterprises to make independent and reasonable pricing and direct online bidding and purchasing will enable relevant pharmaceutical companies to obtain reasonable profits and help solve the drug shortage problem. At the same time, taking measures to stop hanging up the internet for unreasonable price increases will help promote pharmaceutical companies to standardize pricing, keep drug prices within a reasonable range and reduce the burden on the people.

Accelerate the pilot expansion of centralized drug procurement and use.

In recent years, the shortage of drugs has occurred from time to time. In March this year, the reporter of national business daily reported that there was a shortage of nitroglycerin tablets in many places, and the price of pharmacies also rose from a bottle of 7 yuan to more than that of 50 yuan. According to other media reports, in June this year, there was still a shortage of nitroglycerin tablets in pharmacies in some areas.

On January 8, 2019, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Centralized Procurement Service Center issued a notice saying that from May 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018, 108 drug applications were cancelled and submitted to the national unified non-supply commitment letter. According to the notice, the reasons for the suspension of drug production are rising raw materials, transformation of production lines and environmental pollution.

Previously, the notice issued by Liaoning Province on the No.3 Early Warning and Forecast of Shortage-prone Drugs in 2018 showed that Liaoning Province initiated investigation procedures for 54 drugs that could not be supplied and distributed normally. Among them, six pharmaceutical companies reported that they stopped production because they could not purchase raw materials, and two drugs could not be supplied normally because of the rising price of raw materials and the low bid price.

As for the reasons for the shortage of medicines, Shi Lichen said in an interview with national business daily that many medicines in short supply are low-priced medicines. It turns out that the price of related drugs may not change for 2~3 years in a drug bidding. Due to the rising prices of raw materials and labor costs, enterprises producing low-priced drugs are unprofitable or even lose money, and the production power is seriously insufficient, which leads to a shortage of supply.

The executive meeting in the State Council pointed out that it is necessary to speed up the pilot expansion of centralized drug procurement and use. For the varieties listed in the national and provincial shortage drugs list, enterprises are allowed to make independent and reasonable pricing and directly invite public bidding for procurement. For the shortage of drugs and small varieties of drugs with poor substitutability and unstable market supply, centralized procurement and strengthening the construction of centralized production bases will be adopted to ensure supply.

Shi Lichen said that by allowing enterprises to set their own prices, enterprises can reflect the cost in drug prices in time, and with reasonable profits, enterprises will be willing to produce low-priced drugs. At the same time, under the condition that centralized procurement can ensure the purchase quantity, enterprises can also realize the exchange of quantity for price, which is conducive to maintaining market supply.

The meeting also pointed out that the study should increase the import of urgently needed drugs to meet the needs of the people and promote the upgrading of domestic related industries.

Market prohibition will be implemented for monopolistic market price behavior.

Monopoly is also an important reason for drug shortage and price increase. In June 2018, the media reported that the price of chlorpheniramine raw materials rose rapidly in a short period of time, which led to the suspension of some drugs. After investigation, the General Administration of Market Supervision found that the monopoly of Henan Jiushi and Hunan Erkang led to an increase in drug prices. In this regard, the General Administration of Market Supervision imposed a fine of 12.43 million yuan on the coexistence of two pharmaceutical companies.

Shi Lichen said that compared with the profits obtained by these enterprises due to monopoly, the previous penalties for API enterprises were not enough. Large enterprises can usually make a profit of hundreds of millions of yuan by monopolizing APIs, but most of them are only a few hundred thousand yuan or millions of yuan. Considering that drugs are not ordinary commodities, more severe penalties should be imposed according to the sales volume. It is suggested that fines should be increased in the treatment of drug monopoly, and the drug price should be regulated normally to standardize the drug market.

The the State Council executive meeting also made clear requirements for this. The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen the normalization supervision and price enforcement of drug prices, urge unreasonable price increases to be corrected as soon as possible according to laws and regulations, and take measures such as public exposure and suspension of internet access when necessary. Carry out credit evaluation on pharmaceutical enterprises and improve incentive and disciplinary measures. Improve laws and regulations, and impose huge fines, market bans and even criminal penalties on behaviors such as monopoly and manipulation of drug market prices.

Shi Lichen said that the punishment measures such as suspension of internet access and market ban have a great impact on enterprises. Suspension of internet access means that pharmaceutical companies have lost their market access to public hospitals, and their sales volume and market share will be greatly affected. The above measures will be effective for pharmaceutical companies. Shock effect.

The meeting also pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen early warning response, build an information collection platform for short-term drugs, implement a reporting system for drug discontinuation, promote medical institutions to set up an inventory warning line for emergency (emergency) drugs, establish and improve a normal reserve mechanism for short-term drugs, and ensure people’s basic drug demand.

At present, some places have explored this. For example, the Jiangxi Provincial Health and Wellness Commission and the Jiangxi Provincial Medical Security Bureau recently decided to include drug production and distribution enterprises in the monitoring and early warning system on the basis of the monitoring network of drug shortage in medical institutions, and establish a monitoring and early warning reporting system for drug shortage in pharmaceutical companies. At present, Jiangxi has selected four distribution enterprises as the monitoring and early warning sentinel of drug shortage. (Reporter Chengcheng Zhou)