National Healthcare Security Administration in China announced that starting from May, diabetes patients in China would enjoy an average 48 per cent drop in their medicine costs.
The administration said the price cut would be effective on about 40 commonly used insulin products selected by the country’s centralized drug procurement programme in November.
According to the healthcare, bulk-buying mechanism has so far benefited patients with hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, chronic hepatitis B, and other chronic or common diseases, with an average drug price cut of 53 per cent.
It said it had saved an estimated 260 billion yuan (about 40.84 billion U.S. dollars) in medicine costs by the end of last year, and encouraged pharmaceutical enterprises to focus more on research and development.
According to official data, “group-buying” would be institutionalized in the next few years and become the main purchasing channel for drugs and medical consumables.
It added that more high-value medical consumables would also be included in the programme. (Xinhua/NAN)
