The National Healthcare Security Administration said it will continue expanding
centralized procurement coverage and regularly carry out nationally organized
centralized procurement for drugs and medical consumables, while guiding
provinces to advance interprovincial alliance purchasing. It will stick to the
rule that new drugs are excluded from centralized procurement and non-new drugs
are included, and will target high-clinical-use, inflated-price
products—including traditional Chinese medicine, biologics and medical
consumables—to lower patient costs. The agency said it will optimize procurement
rules under the principles of steady clinical supply, quality assurance,
anti-internal competition and preventing bid collusion, emphasizing clinical
demand and implementing a ‘‘remove abnormally high prices; do not award volume
to abnormally low prices’’ policy to steer fair competition and crack down on
collusion. It will coordinate with the drug regulator to tighten quality
thresholds, carry out full-coverage inspections of nationally selected suppliers
and product sampling, and impose strict sanctions on firms found in breach.
