State Council Office: Improve the Price Formation Mechanism for Centralized Volume-Based Drug Procurement and Enhance Management of Listed Drug Prices

The General Office of the State Council has issued several opinions on improving the drug price formation mechanism. The opinions point out the need to improve the price formation mechanism for centralized volume-based drug procurement. It is necessary to further deepen the standardization, institutionalization, and normalization of centralized volume-based drug procurement, and expand channels for pharmaceutical production enterprises to supply medical institutions.

For drugs with diverse suppliers that have been on the market for many years, the approach should adhere to demand orientation and quality priority, combining bidding and procurement while linking volume and price. Reasonable prices should be formed through voluntary participation by enterprises, independent quoting, and fair competition.

Optimize centralized volume-based procurement rules according to the characteristics of different types of drugs, conduct follow-up procurement in a standardized manner upon expiration of agreements, strengthen guidance on local centralized volume-based procurement work, promote fair competition, and ensure the quality and stable supply of selected drugs.

Strengthen policy coordination between medical insurance payment standards and the winning prices of centralized volume-based procurement. For generic drugs included in the medical insurance catalog and covered by centralized volume-based procurement, the medical insurance payment standard shall be determined based on the winning price.