Mainland China releases a sound drug pricing formation mechanism to optimize the initial pricing mechanism for innovative drugs and others

The General Office of the State Council issued "Several Opinions on Improving the Price Formation Mechanism for Pharmaceuticals," stating that it will improve the pricing policies for key pharmaceuticals based on different stages after their market launch. This includes proposing to optimize the initial pricing mechanism for innovative drugs and other newly launched pharmaceuticals, leveraging the guiding role of medical insurance payment standards in price formation, improving the price formation mechanism for centralized bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals, and enhancing the management of pharmaceutical listed prices.

The opinions mention the need to leverage the professional role of medical institutions, guide pharmacies in reasonably setting retail prices for pharmaceuticals, and effectively utilize the price discovery function of online pharmacies, encouraging all parties to participate in price formation. It aims to promote diversified payment methods for innovative drugs and reasonable price formation, strengthen the supply guarantee and price stability for shortage drugs, enhance the price management of narcotic and psychotropic drugs, and regulate the pricing behavior of pharmaceutical raw and auxiliary materials, guiding the prices of pharmaceuticals in key areas to maintain reasonable levels.

The opinions also emphasize the need to strengthen pharmaceutical price governance, proposing to implement pharmaceutical price risk early warning systems, improve the risk disposal system for pharmaceutical prices, prevent irrational bidding impacts on supply, severely punish illegal activities such as forcing price increases in the production and operation of pharmaceuticals and raw materials, strengthen comprehensive audit supervision throughout the pharmaceutical sector, and establish a pharmaceutical medical insurance value assessment system. These targeted measures aim to guide pharmaceutical prices to operate within a reasonable range, effectively serve the construction of a unified national market in the pharmaceutical sector, establish a market-driven pharmaceutical price formation mechanism, support the high-quality development of the pharmaceutical industry, and ensure that the public has access to high-quality and reasonably priced pharmaceuticals