Cailian Press, November 1st (Reporter Lu Aifeng) This afternoon, the National Medical Products Joint Procurement Office (referred to as the Procurement Office) released a notice on the Shanghai Yangguang Medical Procurement Network, officially announcing the drug catalog involved in the tenth round of national procurement.

The notice shows that the tenth batch of national procurement involves a total of 263 specifications, including 62 varieties, a number consistent with the previously leaked volume directory within the industry. This also signifies that the competition pattern of drugs and enterprises covered by the tenth round of national procurement is officially unveiled.

Cailian Press noted that among the 62 varieties mentioned, several are billion-level varieties in the public hospital market, such as Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome Injection, Ceftriaxone Injection, Piperacillin Injection, Compound α-Ketone Oral Controlled Release Dosage Form, Adrenaline Injection, Aspirin Oral Controlled Release Dosage Form, all of which had sales in sample hospitals exceeding 2 billion yuan last year.

According to Minet, the total sales of the 62 varieties in 2023 in China's public medical institutions terminals (urban public hospitals, county-level public hospitals, urban community centers, and township health centers) amount to nearly 55 billion yuan.

In terms of therapeutic areas, the 263 specifications cover more than ten major therapy categories, with the most involved varieties mainly belonging to the digestive system and metabolic drugs, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular system drugs. Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, Fosun Pharma, Qilu Pharmaceutical, Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical, Chengdu Betl Pharmaceutical, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical, CSPC Pharma, Shijiazhuang No. 4 Pharmaceutical and other pharmaceutical companies are the "main forces".

Several varieties face fierce competition, for example: Sitagliptin Oral Controlled Release Dosage Form, there are up to 31 eligible companies participating in national procurement, Propofol Injection has 29 companies, and Paromomycin Injection has 22 competing enterprises.

It is worth mentioning that during the 2024 national negotiations held a few days ago, Paromomycin Injection was also involved. On the fourth day of the national negotiations on October 30th, representatives from Qilu Pharmaceutical, Guilin Nanyao, Jiangsu Wuzhong, Sanyo Pharmaceutical, Hebei Tiancheng, Yunnan Xianshi, Zhongrun Pharmaceuticals and other enterprises all appeared. In addition, Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical, China Meheco Group, Humanwell Healthcare, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical, CSPC Pharma, and other large pharmaceutical companies also have the qualifications to participate in the national procurement of this variety.

According to the rules of the ninth batch of national procurement, only 10 companies can be selected for Remdesivir injection, which means that 12 will need to be eliminated, making the competition for selection very intense, as senior pharmaceutical industry expert Guo Xinfeng told Caixin journalist.

This year's national procurement can be described as a gathering of 'major varieties,' forming an unprecedented trend of 'hunting.' This may be closely related to the requirements and goals of the centralized procurement policy.

The Notice on Strengthening Regional Coordination to Improve the Quality and Expand the Coverage of the 2024 Centralized Drug Procurement issued by the National Medical Insurance Administration in May this year clearly specifies that the national centralized procurement will focus on drugs that have undergone consistency evaluation and high-value medical consumables with excessively high prices and strong public feedback. The national joint procurement will focus on varieties outside the national centralized procurement, as well as large varieties with high procurement amounts and wide coverage, continuously expanding the centralized procurement coverage.

In October, the joint procurement office emphasized reporting discipline in the document notifying medical institutions to report quantities: institutions reporting quantities lower than 80% of their historical purchase amounts are required to provide explanations. For institutions that do not report quantities, report but do not procure, or procure but insufficiently report, public inquiries will be made, and special on-site inspections will be organized.

The upcoming tenth batch of national procurement is expected to be the most competitve and potentially with the largest price reduction in history. Dong Zecheng, Assistant General Manager of Generica Technology China Medical Jiangsu Medical Science, told Caixin journalists that due to some instances of irregular quoting in the past, this year's national procurement will have the strictest compliance requirements. Additionally, the long duration of the tenth batch of national procurement has resulted in a large number of participating companies, leading to even lower winning bid prices, market share division, and a significant compression of gross margins for the winning companies.

Public data shows that from the '4+7' scheme to the ninth batch of national procurement, except for the sixth batch of insulin special national procurement, all others were chemical drug national procurements, with the number of purchase varieties ranging from 16 to 61. The highest number was 62 for the fifth batch of national procurement, with 61 selected varieties. This year's national procurement covers 62 varieties, reaching the same level as the fifth batch of national procurement.

According to past timing of national procurements, the tenth batch of national procurement is likely to carry out on-site quoting around the Chinese New Year, as Dong Zecheng predicts.