Provincial procurement round lowers cost of TCM medicines

A provincial-level bulk purchase program that ended this week resulted in an average price cut of 42.3 percent for traditional Chinese medicines, according to authorities.

Healthcare authorities in Hubei province said on Tuesday evening that about 62 percent of the nearly 162 TCM manufacturers that participated in the bidding process had won their bids, and a total of 111 products had been selected.

Nineteen provincial-level regions, including Hubei, Hebei and Shanxi provinces, have banded together to negotiate lower prices from TCM drug manufacturers, in a bid to relieve the financial burden on patients.

"It is estimated this program will save over 2.6 billion yuan ($4.1 billion) for patients annually," authorities said.

China has launched six national-level rounds of centralized procurement since late 2018, leading to an average price cut of 50 percent.

The latest round on the provincial level also marked the first time regional authorities have tapped into the TCM market as a means to lower costs.

Meng Lilian, an expert at the Sichuan Tianfu Health Industry Research Institute, which is administered by the provincial health commission, said during an interview with online website, Paper.cn that the regional program will likely encourage higher authorities to launch larger scale TCM procurement programs in the future.