To solve the shortage of cheap and good drugs, we should not only rely on the market but also rely on Supervision

Source: on September 17, 2015, the Economic Daily reported that a box of ACTH for injection sold for only 7.8 yuan was hard to find in the hospital, but the price was as high as 4000 yuan on the black market It is not a case that "one medicine is hard to find" is a cheap special drug that can save lives at critical moments, such as ACTH In recent years, "protamine sulfate injection", an essential drug for heart surgery, "cedilan", an injection for treating heart failure, and "papaverine", which is used to control vasospasm in heart surgery, have been out of stock In this regard, many people have whipped the price regulation of drugs, believing that the government's price regulation of drugs has led to the shortage of low-cost drugs In fact, in order to better solve the problem of low-cost drug shortage and ensure the supply of low-cost drugs, the relevant departments of the state have successively issued a series of policies and measures, including the deregulation of drug prices For example, in April 2014, eight departments including the national health and Family Planning Commission issued the opinions on ensuring the supply of commonly used low-cost drugs At the beginning of May 2014, the national development and Reform Commission issued the catalogue of low-cost drugs within the pricing range of the national development and Reform Commission, which cancelled the maximum retail price limit of 530 kinds of drugs Manufacturers can make their own pricing on the premise that the daily average cost of Western medicine users does not exceed 3 yuan, and the daily average cost of Chinese patent medicine does not exceed 5 yuan However, although the price of drugs has been liberalized, the shortage of cheap drugs has not been completely eradicated In recent years, with the rising cost of labor and raw materials, the production cost of many drugs has increased In drug bidding, some places hold down the price of bidding, resulting in the profit of low-cost drugs becoming thinner and thinner, and even the cost price hanging upside down And many of these cheap special drugs belong to the drugs with small market demand If enterprises continue to maintain production, they will lose money, but giving up production has little impact on themselves Under the influence of many factors, many enterprises choose to adjust production according to market supply and demand and cost changes, or even give up production, which eventually leads to the shortage of clinical supply of low-cost drugs In this sense, the shortage of some cheap special drugs is the result of the market mechanism It is the nature of enterprises to pursue profits Under the background of cost and price hanging upside down, pharmaceutical enterprises can choose to reduce production or stop production independently However, behind the cold market mechanism, it means that patients need to find more expensive alternative drugs, which will increase the burden; more importantly, some lives that really need to be saved by relying on cheap and good drugs may miss the best treatment opportunity due to the shortage of drugs Management is not blind to the shortage of some cheap drugs and the rapid rise of prices For the so-called "black market" price, we should strengthen the market supervision, and confirm whether there are any illegal acts such as manufacturers or dealers manipulating the price by using the market monopoly position Once the relevant producers and operators have the behavior of driving up the price and abusing the dominant position of the market to disturb the price order of the drug market, they should be severely punished In view of the fact that enterprises are less and less active in the production of cheap drugs, it is necessary to give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and the role of the government In order to further rationalize the pricing mechanism of drug price and make the drug finally at a reasonable price level, it is necessary to organize the mass production and quantitative purchase of emergency drugs and drugs for rare diseases which are clinically necessary, irreplaceable, uncertain in dosage and not often produced by enterprises; It is necessary to explore and establish a system to guarantee the supply of drugs in short supply Specialized agencies and special personnel shall be responsible for the purchase, storage and allocation of such drugs, so as to ensure that people can buy and use cheap drugs and commonly used drugs.