Development and Reform Commission's monopoly on the price of APIs: the highest price of isoniazid tablets increased by 25 times

Source: Securities Daily August 1, 2017 In order to maintain the fair competition environment of API Market and regulate the market price order, the national development and Reform Commission issued a message on July 31, saying that recently, the case of abusing the dominant market position, selling isoniazid API at an unfair high price and refusing to trade without proper reason was started according to law against Zhejiang xinsecco Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd and Tianjin handway Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd Li decided to impose a total fine of 443900 yuan on the two companies Both enterprises have recovered normal prices and supplied products to pharmaceutical enterprises, and the order of market competition has been restored An industry source, who asked not to be named, told the Securities Daily that it was the industry's open secret that companies made huge profits by monopolizing the prices of APIs According to the reporter of Securities Daily, while isoniazid bulk drug involves price monopoly, isoniazid tablets and isoniazid injection produced by downstream manufacturers are in short supply, and the sales price of isoniazid tablets on different platforms varies by nearly 25 times The price monopoly of API involves the profiteering development and Reform Commission The monopoly behavior in the pharmaceutical field is the focus of domestic supervision in recent years This investigation and punishment of the price monopoly behavior of Zhejiang xinsecco Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd and Tianjin handway Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd is conducive to regulating the price behavior of API market, maintaining the market price order and establishing a fair market environment for drug purchase and sale The national development and Reform Commission will continue to strengthen anti-monopoly supervision, stop acts restricting competition in various fields according to law, seriously investigate and deal with illegal acts such as monopoly agreements and abuse of market dominance, and earnestly safeguard the order of fair competition and the legitimate interests of operators and consumers The above industry personage introduced to the reporter that some API production enterprises unite to control the output, so as to raise the API price and obtain huge profits, "some enterprises obtain huge profits of more than 100 million yuan, and the above fines are not enough to deter illegal enterprises." In this regard, the above industry believes that when punishing the price monopoly enterprises of APIs, the penalty amount should be calculated according to two to three times of the sales amount of the enterprises In addition, after punishing enterprises, we should also examine whether their monopoly behavior stops It is worth mentioning that the price monopoly of isoniazid API also has an impact on the downstream drug production and sales According to the website of the State Food and drug administration, there are 570 production approvals for isoniazid tablets and 27 for isoniazid injection products It is worth mentioning that although there are many enterprises holding the batch number of isoniazid tablets, there are not many enterprises actually producing this drug According to the inquiry of Securities Daily, isoniazid tablets and isoniazid injection are listed in the clinical shortage of drugs by relevant provinces and cities On July 18, 2017, Shanghai Sunshine pharmaceutical purchase network issued the notice on purchasing isoniazid injections and other clinically scarce drugs on the Internet, among which isoniazid injections were listed; on June 26, 2017, Shanghai issued the notice on purchasing the second batch of commonly used low-cost drugs on the Internet, among which isoniazid tablets were listed In addition, in September 2016, the office of the leading group for centralized procurement of drugs and medical consumables in Gansu Province issued a notice, announcing the list of first-aid shortage and direct online drugs in Gansu Province in 2016, including isoniazid tablets "With the rise of the price of APIs, the cost of drug production in some enterprises has been inverted, and these manufacturers have to reduce or even give up the production of these drugs." The industry said It is not only manufacturers that suffer from the sharp rise in downstream drug prices, but also patients have to face the dilemma of "one drug is hard to find" and drug price rising due to drug scarcity It is understood that the indications of isoniazid tablets include: in combination with other antituberculous drugs, it is suitable for the treatment of various types of tuberculosis, including tuberculous meningitis and other mycobacterial infections; it is only suitable for the prevention of various types of tuberculosis According to a reporter from Securities Daily, the market price of isoniazid tablets has skyrocketed as they are listed in the list of drugs in short supply It is understood that the sales price of isoniazid tablets before was only more than 3 yuan According to the survey on drug market price released by Price Bureau of Baisha Li Autonomous County on August 2, 2016, among the 21 varieties of commonly used drugs selected by Baisha branch of renzhitang, the purchase price of drugs increased by different ranges, with isoniazid (50mg × 100 tablets / bottle) rising by a relatively high margin, and the retail price was 13 yuan, up 333.33% According to the information released in the public announcement of the second batch of commonly used low-cost drugs to be purchased online in Shanghai in 2017, the manufacturer of isoniazid tablets to be purchased is Tianjin Lisheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., with a purchase price of 28 yuan / bottle and a specification of "0.1g * 100 tablets / bottle" However, when the reporter inquired on multiple platforms, he found that the drug was "sold out" In addition, the manufacturers of isoniazid tablets include Shanghai Shangyao Xinyi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd When the reporter of Securities Daily inquired on multiple platforms such as jianke.com, tmall.com and good pharmacist, he learned that the price of isoniazid tablets produced by Shanghai Shangyao Xinyi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd displayed on jianke.com was 3.8 yuan / bottle, and the specification was "100mg * 100 tablets / bottle" When the platform of tmall Medical Center inquired, the sales price of isoniazid tablets of the same specification in some pharmacies had reached 98 yuan / bottle This means that the price difference of isoniazid tablets of the same specification is nearly 25 times between different pharmacies However, drugstores on both platforms told reporters that the drug was out of stock The reporter inquired about many drugstores, among which a drugstore employee said to the reporter that the isoniazid tablets displayed in the store were on hand, and the price was 59 yuan / bottle At this price, the price of isoniazid tablets has increased about 15 times compared with the original price of more than 3 yuan Unexpectedly, the reporter also called the official wechat store of Xinyi pharmacy under Shanghai Shangyao Xinyi Pharmaceutical Factory Co., Ltd., and the staff introduced to the reporter that the platform did not have this medicine, "this medicine is probably out of stock since last year." "The shortage and price rise of the above drugs are caused by many factors, among which the price rise of API is one of the important reasons." Those in the industry told reporters.