Local characteristics or changing the market pattern of the base medicine

On August 1st, the Chongqing Municipal Health Bureau issued a notice on its official website about the declaration of the city’s list of supplemental essential medicines, requiring drug manufacturers to make declarations before August 6. The “time constraints, limited space, and fax format” in the notice were interpreted by the media as a priority for Chongqing local companies.

Market analysts believe that the addition of local-based drugs will have a major impact on the current pharmaceutical market structure. Prior to this, the supplementary catalogs announced by Qinghai and Guangdong not only expanded significantly, but also took place with “local features” to varying degrees. "It is difficult to form a balance between the interest chain and higher drug prices.

The surnamed Deng, who is responsible for the supplementation of the basic medicines of the Chongqing Municipal Health Bureau, told the reporter of the “Daily Economic News” that local companies did not give priority to treatment and all the work would be conducted under the relevant requirements of the country.

Chongqing start-up drug supplement

In the first half of the year, local-based medicines that had been in a state of stagnation were supplemented and suddenly changed dramatically after entering the second half of the year. On August 1st, the Chongqing Municipal Health Bureau issued a notice requesting pharmaceutical manufacturers to declare their supplemental drug catalog products in the city by August 6.

According to media reports, on July 31, Jiangxi issued a notification of supplementation to the base medicine in the form of an internal document. Qinghai and Guangdong announced their local supplements on July 1 and July 4, respectively.

The reporter learned that at several meetings in the first half of this year, the National Health and Family Planning Commission made it clear that the provinces should mainly carry out “reviewing” work during the first half of the year, and that they were not busy updating the catalogue, and issued a “Working Plan for Grassroots Drug Additions to Look Back”. , clearly pointed out that at present the number of supplemental medicines is generally higher in various regions. At present, most provinces have already completed the related work of “reviewing the past”, and the supplementation of the base medicine has entered the stage of variety selection or catalog discussion.

The aforementioned person surnamed Deng stated that the supplementation work for the list of basic medicines in the city is still in the enterprise declaration stage, and the final catalogue will be determined according to relevant principles.

The Chongqing Municipal Health Bureau official website elaborated on the above “principles”, including “complementing the 2012 edition of the National Essential Drug List and the 2010 edition of the Supplementary Drug List of Chongqing Municipality, in line with the diagnosis and treatment scope and service functions of the primary medical and health institutions in the city”. Wait for seven details.

It is worth noting that since the company’s filing date was August 6th, it only took 4 working days. According to media reports, many local pharmaceutical companies in Chongqing received a fax from the Bureau of Health before the official website notice. enterprise.

“The short time for companies to report to the company is mainly because the leader’s request to end is relatively early. According to this schedule, each link needs very tight time, including the short-term finishing time left for us. A lot of people are working overtime," said the above surnamed Tang.

The person also stressed that according to the filing time prescribed by the Bureau, both local and foreign companies are prepared to provide sufficient information. “The information we require to submit is very simple, as long as the company determines the categories of drugs reported, one day will be able to complete the preparation of the information, there is no problem of local business priorities.”

Supplementary local characteristics

Although the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Health stated above denied the question of “priority for local companies”, many people in the industry believe that it is customary to add “preferential” local pharmaceutical companies to the list of local-based medicines.

The reporters inquired about the supplement list of the base medicines in Qinghai Province and found that the Tibetan medicine supplementation was obvious. The Tibetan medicine with local characteristics expanded from the original 20 species to 60 species. “Tibetan medicine is a major feature of Qinghai's pharmaceutical industry. Addition of basic medicines to Tibetan medicine support will be of great benefit to local pharmaceutical manufacturers. Local listed companies such as Qinghai gelatine will benefit.” a large pharmaceutical company in Chongqing Management sources said.

In the supplement list of Guangdong based medicines, the proportion of proprietary Chinese medicines is also relatively large, and 15 Chinese medicine injections have been included. However, in the new national list of base medicines, there is no new variety of traditional Chinese medicine injections. “Guangdong is hot and humid all year round, and pharmaceutical companies such as the Guangpharm Group are all doing Chinese medicine and have very rich resources. It is not surprising that this situation has arisen.” The above sources said.

“There is a limited number of base medicine supplements, and it is advantageous for all localities to consider local companies to promote the development of the local pharmaceutical industry.” The Chongqing pharmaceutical company executives said bluntly. However, he said he was unaware of whether the company he received had faxed before the notice was released on the official website of the Chongqing Municipal Health Bureau.

In fact, for local essential medicines supplemented with "local features" that are difficult to avoid, the National Health and Family Planning Commission has also explicitly requested that all varieties that are included in the scope of supplementation must meet the requirements of selection principles and local control features.

“We will determine according to the principle of selection of the essential drugs, but at the same time we must also comply with the disease spectrum in Chongqing and the medication habits of primary-level medical institutions. However, this does not mean that local companies will be prioritized. Foreign companies also produce similar drugs and will be included in the selection. "The above-named person from Tang said.

“Local-based drug supplementation is under the premise of local drug demand as the predominant factor. There are more local companies entering the market, which will have little impact on the market. However, if local interests dominate, this will undermine the order of market competition. "We have been investing in the pharmaceutical industry for many years, said Zhou Wei.