Centralized procurement of high-value medical devices or labeling with low prices

The imported brackets with tariffs halved starting from this year may have substantial price reductions starting from this year, while the ones that truly drag down the prices of brackets that are "far away" will be centralized bidding.
After 30 rounds of price reductions for drugs, high-value medical devices that are above all have finally begun to be included in the perspective of price consolidation. The first to win will be high-value medical consumables, including stents. Recently, it was reported by the Ministry of Health that six departments including the Ministry of Health have jointly issued the "Guidelines for Centralized Procurement of High Value Medical Consumables (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines").
8-year pilot refining bidding baton
The draft for soliciting opinions on the "Guidelines for Centralized Procurement of High Value Medical Consumables" was only solicited in September last year. However, according to the Ministry of Health, as early as August 2004, it organized pilot work on the centralized procurement of three types of high value medical consumables, including cardiac intervention consumables, artificial joints, and pacemakers, for tertiary medical institutions in eight provinces and cities, including Beijing.
Due to the significant price reduction effect, this pilot project was carried out from 2008 to 2009. On the basis of the pilot work in 8 provinces and cities, the International Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Ministry of Health was also entrusted with two rounds of centralized procurement work for some key high-value medical consumables in China. And in 2010, the addition of new products was carried out.
Before the introduction of the "Regulations", many provinces (regions, cities) such as Sichuan, Ningxia, Jiangsu, Hubei, Zhejiang, etc., combined with local realities, carried out centralized procurement of some high-value medical consumables on a provincial basis.
According to the requirements of 6 departments including the Ministry of Health, including vascular intervention, non vascular intervention, orthopedic implantation, neurosurgery, electrophysiology, pacemaker, extracorporeal circulation and blood purification, ophthalmic materials and other high-value medical consumables will be included in the scope of centralized bidding procurement. At the same time, all public and non-profit medical institutions at or above the county level must participate in this centralized procurement.
Intended to compress unreasonable expenses in the circulation process
"Before 2004, there were many problems in the procurement of high-value medical consumables in various regions, such as low concentration ratio, high purchase price, large price difference between regions, heavy burden on enterprises, unhealthy tendencies in purchase and sales, and irregular behavior of intermediary agencies." This is an officially recognized fact.
However, even after 2004, the issue of suspected bribery by multinational medical device companies in China has been exposed from time to time.
Cai Tianzhi, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Medical and Health Products, admitted in an interview with reporters that in order to truly reduce the price of imported medical devices, marketing expenses must be reduced. In his view, the explicit or implicit price increases in the middle stage have become an important factor leading to the high prices of some high-value medical equipment.
Through the "Regulations", it can be seen that the centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables will draw on the model of centralized drug procurement, which implements three unifications: unified organization, unified platform, and unified supervision. At the same time, the leadership, management, working, and supervisory agencies for centralized drug procurement work will also continue to be used.
Tao Duchun, the president of the Shenzhen Medical Device Industry Association, told reporters from Nandu that achieving centralized procurement of high-value consumables is a progress. In his view, the issue of high price difference and large differences in the circulation of high-value medical equipment has reached an urgent need for standardization. Tao Duchun pointed out《