China to improve drug price formation mechanism for reasonable pricing

The Chinese government has rolled out guidelines on improving the drug price formation mechanism, with the aim of keeping drug prices within a reasonable range.

These guidelines, recently issued by the General Office of the State Council, stress the need to refine the market-oriented mechanism for drug price formation, support the high-quality development of the pharmaceutical industry, and ensure that the people have access to medicines that are both high in quality and reasonable in price.

The guidelines propose optimizing the initial pricing mechanism for newly marketed drugs, including innovative drugs.

In the case of high-level innovative drugs with a high degree of innovation and significant clinical value, their prices at the early stage of market entry should reflect the high R&D investment and high risk involved, while remaining relatively stable for a certain period of time, according to the guidelines.

The guidelines also call for leveraging the guiding role of medical insurance payment standards in drug price formation, and improving the price formation mechanism for bulk procurement. ■