95 drugs lower than expected in the next month

The National Development and Reform Commission once again lowered the maximum retail price limit for some drugs. The industry generally believes that the price cuts are lower than market expectations and have limited impact on related listed companies.

Yesterday, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice deciding to adjust the maximum retail price limit for some anti-tumor, immune, and blood system drugs starting from October 8. A total of 95 varieties and more than 200 representative dosage forms were involved, and the average price cut was 17%. This is the 28th price cut in the pharmaceutical industry in recent years. Its magnitude and impact are lower than market expectations.

It is worth mentioning that, in addition to lowering the price limit, the current price adjustment also starts from the actual situation and raises the price of supplies such as blood-borne eight factors. This is the first time since 2006 that the country has clearly pointed out that prices for blood-related products that fall short of demand increase prices.

The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission stated that the price adjustment will increase the price reduction for drugs with high daily expenses, reduce the price of drugs with low daily expenses, encourage the production and supply of drugs with relatively low prices, and increase the proportion of blood products with tight clinical supply. Prices; The use of price levers to control price cuts for innovative drugs, such as patents, to promote R&D and innovation of medicines; and to individually price-adjusted medicines, further narrowing the price gap with the uniformly-priced medicines to promote fair market competition.

According to statistics, in the 22 subfields of domestic prescription drugs, the anti-tumor, immunization and blood system drugs ranked second and fifth in market scale in 2011 respectively. As early as January this year, the industry was rumored that the above drugs would be reduced by 20%, and the actual price cut was only 17%, and the implementation time was also much later than expected. Therefore, the industry generally believes that the impact on the 2012 performance of major companies is relatively small.

Specifically, from the perspective of varieties, there is less decline than expected, and only oxaliplatin has a price reduction of more than 35%. It is reported that oxaliplatin is an important product of Hengrui Pharmaceutical. Company stakeholders told reporters that in addition to the need for additional price cuts in individual regions, the overall price reduction will affect the company in the future. At the same time, Oxaliplatin has recently obtained the European Formulation Approval for Exports. In addition, the company has obtained U.S.-certified Irinotecan in the near future. The company will strive for separate pricing in follow-up bids to increase profitability.

“Before it thought that the price reduction would reach between 20% and 30%, it would have a certain impact on the company's performance this year, and now the company's products only have a 10% price reduction rate, I think the market should not be too concerned about this.” Shenzhen A director of a listed company that produces clopidogrel told reporters.

It is worth noting that the eight-factor price increase of this blood-raising price has exceeded 50% to 396 yuan/200 units. "After the price increase, the country will uniformly implement a price of 396 yuan, which should be good for blood product companies. Only by ensuring that companies have profit margins, can companies have the incentive to do research and development and improve production processes." Mr. Guan Tao, the president of the Family Rare Disease Care, told reporters.

Current listed companies involved in the production of eight-factor blood products include Hualan Bio and Shanghai Lai Shi. According to stakeholders in the high-level Hualan Biotechnology Group, after the prices of eight-factor blood products are unified across the country, it is expected to balance the regional supply pattern. However, the supply of eight factors has not been alleviated.

According to the sources of the liberal arts, the reporter disclosed that from the point of view of improving the company's variety, the eight-factor blood product drug project currently being planned in the company is accelerating.