CCTV News:In recent years, the National Development and Reform Commission found that some APIs, minority drugs and cheap drugs have become the frequent areas of price monopoly violations. Let’s take a look at two cases investigated before.
A monopoly case that occurred from April 2014 to September 2015, allopurinol tablets, as a commonly used drug for treating gout, were listed in the national list of essential drugs and the national list of low-priced drugs, with low prices. However, around 2015, the price of each bottle has soared from 10 yuan to more than 30 yuan, and it is even difficult to buy.
The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission told the reporter that this is a typical case in which a shortage drug raw material drug manufacturer implements monopoly. The involved enterprise Chongqing Qingyang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and its affiliated sales company Chongqing Datong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and other five companies negotiated to divide the sales market and uniformly raise the price of allopurinol tablets, resulting in high prices of downstream drugs and tight supply.
Isoniazid, as a raw material drug for treating pulmonary tuberculosis, has been monopolized by Zhejiang Xinsecco and Tianjin Handewei, which makes the price rise abnormally. In 2013 and 2014, the price of raw material drug of isoniazid was between 150 yuan/kg and 200 yuan/kg, which rose sharply in less than two years, and even rose to 3,800 yuan/kg in some batches, and the price of raw material drug obtained by some pharmaceutical companies from distributors was even higher.
Wang Yanglin, Anti-monopoly Division II of the Anti-monopoly Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that there are actually many reasons for the shortage of medicines, and there are indeed fewer manufacturers. Because of the shortage and easy to be controlled by some illegal people, the prices of these drugs have skyrocketed.
The anti-monopoly department of the National Development and Reform Commission has successively investigated and dealt with a number of price monopoly behaviors carried out by operators of short-selling drugs and APIs. Up to now, the investigation and handling of price monopoly cases of short-selling drugs and APIs has covered more than ten provinces and cities such as Shandong, Chongqing and Hubei, and the APIs involved include allopurinol, isoniazid and other varieties, with a total economic sanction of about 16.13 million yuan.
Xu Xinyu, director of the Anti-monopoly Division II of the Anti-monopoly Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that in fact, the goal of anti-monopoly law enforcement is not to promote price reduction or price increase, but to restore this business order. We believe that there is a healthy mutual competition, and its price level must reflect market supply and demand, and prices will return reasonably.