"Price-cutting drug" replacement "vest" price increase pharmacy difficult to buy low-priced drugs

Business Club May 16th [Cases playback]

According to the unified requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission, starting from March 28th, the maximum retail prices of some antibiotics and circulatory system drugs used to treat infections and cardiovascular diseases began to be adjusted downwards, involving a total of 162 varieties and nearly 1,300 formulations, and the average price reduction Up to 21%. This is the 27th time since 1997, China's 27th reduction in the maximum retail price of drugs. However, according to a number of media reports, as soon as medicines are cut prices, they are sold out and then disappear completely in the market.

Pharmacy

It is difficult to buy "price reduction drugs"

The price reduction involves commonly used drugs such as amoxicillin, cephradine, cefadroxil, roxithromycin, nifedipine, ofloxacin, oxytetracycline, and azithromycin. The “price reduction order” was implemented for more than a month. What is the market situation? Yesterday, the reporter visited some pharmacies in Shanghai and found it difficult to buy "price-cutting drugs." Usually, only the cheap pharmacies had goods.

The reporter launched an investigation of roxithromycin, a commonly used anti-inflammatory drug. In this price reduction list, the maximum retail price of 150 mg roxithromycin capsules produced by the Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group dropped to 23.5 yuan, and 50 mg dropped to 10.1 yuan. The salesperson of a Fahrenheit pharmacy in Yanchang Road said that no roxithromycin had ever been taken in the store. The Ren Yun Shang pharmacy at the Henan Zhongkou Road in Hankou Road claimed that roxithromycin was 10 yuan but was sold out. The Guoren Pharmacy on Fuzhou Road also did not have roxithromycin. The reporter asked the salesperson whether there was any drug with similar efficacy to roxithromycin. The salesperson recommended four or five drugs, and the cheapest one was more than 30 yuan.

In the list of price cuts, Ceftriaxone of Shanghai Roche Company has seen a large drop. The unit price has been reduced from more than 90 yuan to more than 60 yuan. The reporter visited several pharmacies and got the same answer: “No goods.” The commonly used hypoglycemic agents in the price reduction list The maximum retail price of "Metformin" tablets (0.25g x 24 tablets) was 5 yuan, but a number of pharmacy salespersons stated that "there are no such goods in the store," and there are many other specifications, such as 0.5g. × 30 metformin sustained-release tablets sell for 25.6 yuan.

Cheap Pharmacy

Relatively complete goods

Contrary to the situation in large pharmacies, price reduction drugs are relatively complete in some chain-priced pharmacies. Aunt Lee, who bought medicine at a cheap pharmacy at the intersection of Songhuajiang Road and Yingkou, told reporters that she had high blood pressure and often took amlodipine besylate tablets. This medicine was also on the list of price cuts. It dropped about 2 yuan per box. Auntie Lee said that before eating several other antihypertensive drugs, they could hardly buy it after several price cuts, or after changing other names, they would raise their prices. She is worried that the amlodipine besylate tablets will also be renamed price increases. The manager admitted frankly that the amlodipine besylate tablets sold in the shop were indeed sold at a reduced price, and the selling price was lower than the purchase price and was a loss sale. "Less profits, large pharmacies are generally reluctant to sell this medicine." There is also a compound reserpine, after a price reduction in previous years, Shanghai has no manufacturers, pharmacies have to go to the national market to "pharmaceutical" for the out of stock Reduce medicine to find a substitute.

Restricted drugs

Re-listing and re-listing

Industry experts revealed that today's manufacturers are clever, and the same variety of medicines, medicines for hospitals and pharmacies are not a specification, and after price cuts, they are no longer subject to price cuts. There are many changes in the form of “vest”, such as changing the dosage form, changing the packaging, changing the technology, etc. In this way, the price will naturally go up. Drug companies, pharmacies, and hospitals will not suffer losses. The only thing that suffers is patients. The price department said that due to the fact that the actual composition and efficacy of antibiotics and other drugs are similar, there are many manufacturers and they are highly substitutable. Do not rule out that due to market competition and other reasons, a small number of manufacturers stop producing some drugs with reduced profits, which will not necessarily affect market supply. The relevant state departments have formulated and implemented relevant measures to restrict the re-listing of drugs.