Drug purchases are divided into five categories

The General Office of the State Council has issued the "Guiding Opinions on Improving the Centralized Procurement of Drugs in Public Hospitals." The opinions were clear, and the five types of medicines such as narcotic drugs, psychoactive drugs, and free drugs for the control of infectious diseases and parasitic diseases were classified and procured for some patented drugs, exclusive production of drugs, drugs that were clinically necessary, used in small quantities, and were in short supply;

For the large amount of clinical use, high purchase amount, and basic medicines and generic drugs produced by a number of companies, the opinion requires that the provincial-level drug procurement agencies adopt the double-envelope system for open tender procurement. The hospital, as the purchasing entity, purchases drugs at the bid price. For drugs that have a significantly low bid price and may have quality and supply risks, a comprehensive assessment must be conducted to avoid vicious competition. Priority procurement of generic drugs that meet international standards.

For some patented drugs and exclusive production of drugs, an open, transparent, multi-participatory price negotiation mechanism has been established. The results of the negotiations were announced on the National Drug Supply and Management Integrated Management Information Platform, and the hospitals purchased drugs according to the negotiation results.

Specialized medicines for women and children, emergency (grabbing) rescue medicines, basic infusions, drugs with small clinical doses (the specific scope of the above-mentioned drugs are determined by provinces, districts and cities), and commonly used low-priced medicines are subject to centralized screening and directly purchased by hospitals. .

For medicines that are clinically necessary, small in dosage, and lack of market supply, the state will invite tenders for production and bargain purchase.

Free drug use for narcotic drugs, psychoactive drugs, and infectious diseases and parasitic diseases, national immunization planning vaccines, family planning drugs, and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces are procured according to the current national regulations to ensure transparency and transparency.

All medicines used in hospitals (excluding Chinese Herbal Medicines) should be purchased through provincial-level drug procurement platforms. Inter-provincial inter-regional, specialist hospitals and other joint procurement are encouraged. The procurement cycle is in principle once a year.

In addition, the opinions also clarified aspects such as improving drug payment settlement methods, strengthening drug distribution management, and standardizing procurement platform construction.

The high drug prices are the ills that our country’s health care reform is trying to overcome.

Investigating the "hidden rules" can be found that drug companies enter the government's bidding catalogue, and then go to the hospital to reach the patient through three channels. The process of crossing the layers of the threshold is the promoter of high drug prices and a breeding ground for corruption. In May last year, Changsha exposed the dark sales of children's growth hormone: Some medical representatives used high rebates to induce paediatricians to abuse children's growth hormones. Some medical representatives even stood in some hospitals to monitor doctors' prescriptions.

"The newly issued guidelines improve the current centralized procurement system, implement a platform, classify procurement, and integrate measures such as integration, volume-price linkage, and double-envelope system, and at the same time strengthen comprehensive supervision over the entire process of drug procurement and require procurement. The platform will regularly publish key information such as procurement prices, quantities, and time of remittances for hospital drugs,” said Fan Dijun, a researcher at the National School of Administration. “This puts procurement in the sun and curbs the space for commercial bribery and private transactions.”