Bai Jianfeng: Why Imported Drugs Dominate the World

Recently, a Dr. Haizheng participated in several influential medical forums. He found that at the meeting, no large-scale clinical research was conducted independently by China. None of the conferences was sponsored by foreign pharmaceutical companies. There was not a conference. Promote new medicines independently developed by China. He appealed that China should protect domestic innovative drugs like giant pandas, otherwise domestic innovative drugs will face the danger of being "wrecked."

This language is not alarmist. According to statistics, in the past more than 20 years, China has approved more than 40 new types of chemical drugs. However, the vast majority have been dying for a long time and have no ability to compete with foreign drugs. Nowadays, in the field of chronic diseases, foreign drugs have driven into the market and have almost monopolized the market. The innovation capability of Chinese pharmaceutical companies is basically destroyed, and the driving force for innovation is getting weaker and weaker. Most companies can only rely on generic drugs to survive. In the long run, once imported drugs have dominated the rivers and lakes, the Chinese will have to eat "high price drugs."

So, why is the domestically-made innovative drug “long?”? One important reason is the lack of a good living environment. For example, some innovative drugs have taken too long to approve, and have dampened the enthusiasm of enterprises. Some innovative drugs have emerged soon and many similar generic drugs will emerge. The intellectual property rights cannot be protected; some may not enter the medical insurance catalog and the market Unable to open, eventually being dragged. In fact, for innovative drugs, the patent period is life. In general, the period of patents for new drug inventions is 20 years, and it usually takes more than 10 years from R&D to production. If it is not possible to enter the medical insurance catalog as soon as possible, the patent period has basically passed when the market is opened. The new drug R&D investment is high, the risk is high, and the cycle is long. If the profit cannot be returned early, the company will be in trouble. Therefore, most domestically-made innovative drugs can hardly escape the fate of “successful scientific research and market failure”.

More importantly, Chinese pharmaceutical companies and foreign pharmaceutical companies cannot enjoy the same "national treatment." Imported drugs during the patent period can be subject to high prices; imported drugs that have passed the patent period continue to remain high-priced in the name of so-called “original research drugs”, and some even have higher prices than foreign ones and can still enter the national health insurance system. table of Contents. At the same time, in the tendering of medicines, our country regards “original research medicine” as a separate quality level so that it has no competitors and prices are protected. The implementation of the “one product and two regulations” policy for hospital procurement of medicines is actually an import drug and a domestic drug. As a result, domestic drugs were crippled at low prices, and imported drugs were collected for profits. Because the imported drugs enjoyed "super national treatment", profits and marketing expenses far exceeded that of domestic drugs, so sales climbed all the way. In an unfair competitive environment, it is difficult for Chinese pharmaceutical companies to have the strength to develop new drugs.

In fact, Sino-foreign drug companies cannot enjoy the same treatment. They are not in line with international practice and also violate the rules of market economy. In the short term, this approach seems to be conducive to attracting foreign investment, but in the long run, it is not conducive to the healthy development of the entire pharmaceutical industry. Because the market economy is an economy ruled by law, only by creating a fair “rules of the game” and allowing enterprises to compete in a reasonable and orderly manner can we maintain the vitality of the national economy.

China is a developing country with 1.3 billion people. How to use limited financial resources to maintain the health of the majority of the population is an urgent issue for medical reform. At present, the public has a strong appeal for medical treatment, and one of the important reasons for the high cost of medical treatment is the high price of drugs, especially the high price of imported drugs. Therefore, relevant departments should change unreasonable drug policies as soon as possible to create equal opportunities for Chinese and foreign drug companies. Only in this way, can China's innovative drugs come to the fore and the people can truly benefit.