China will lower prices on 182 modern, or Western-style,
medicines in its latest effort to provide more affordable drugs,
the country's economic planning body announced on Tuesday.
The new price caps involved more than 1,200 specific products,
covering drugs for treating digestive and respiratory ailments,
painkillers, and anesthetic and neural medicines, said a National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) statement.
The price cuts, averaging 19 percent, would save consumers a
total of about five billion yuan (US$649 million) and would take
effect on May 15, the NDRC said.
Some medicines would see price cuts of up to 62 percent.
The statement also announced that prices of 18 drugs that are in
short supply would be raised "moderately" in order to encourage
production and supply.
On March 7, NDRC Minister Ma Kai said many medicines were still
over-priced despite several price reductions and the medical system
needed systematic reforms to ensure medicines were more
affordable.
"The drug market is actually very chaotic and many medicines
have their names changed to avoid price cuts," he said.
Ma said the government would reform the system that required
hospitals to make money by selling medicines. He also wanted
problems in drug production and distribution addressed and to
correct irregularities in the approval of new medicines.
So far, about 1,500 medicines have had their prices fixed by the
central government and the prices of more than 800 drugs are
determined by local governments.
Since the start of 2006, the central government has lowered
prices of more than 900 drugs and raised the costs of more than 70
cheap medicines.
Starting from May 1, governments at various levels are required
to publish investigations into food and drug safety among other
information crucial to the public interest, within 20 working
days.
(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2007)