,”The pressure on the spot is really great. We can say that we have waited for 10 years for this negotiation.”

Today is the second day of the opening of the”2022 National Medical Insurance Drug Catalog Access Negotiation”. The temperature has picked up compared with the first day. The health client reporter of the People’s Daily noticed on the scene that today’s overall rhythm is much faster than yesterday. At about 9:17 on January 6, two enterprise representatives have walked out of the door first, but they walked in a hurry and did not explain the negotiation.

The overall decline was in line with expectations

The reporter from the health client of the People’s Daily learned on the scene that today’s negotiations involve highly concerned hypoglycemic drugs and some rare disease drugs, and domestic pharmaceutical enterprises will compete with multinational pharmaceutical enterprises on the same platform. According to the feedback from the representatives of the enterprises that successfully concluded the negotiation in the morning, the overall atmosphere was relatively relaxed. Many enterprise representatives told the health client reporter of the People’s Daily that the results of today’s negotiations were”in line with expectations”.

On January 6, representatives of participating countries were waiting in line. Photographed by Wang Aibing

“Medical insurance is a major event for the company. It took us six years from drug research and development to approval and listing to medical insurance negotiation.” At about 10:30 on January 6, another representative of the biopharmaceutical enterprise who successfully completed the negotiation walked out of the door and told the health client reporter of the People’s Daily,”The negotiation results were OK, and we were a little nervous inside (the negotiation site), but now we are in a good mood after the discussion, and the overall decline is in line with expectations.”

At about 11:00 on January 6, the representative of a large domestic pharmaceutical enterprise walked out of the negotiation door with a relaxed expression. According to the staff waiting outside the enterprise, he told the health client reporter of the People’s Daily,”We also came yesterday, we had a good talk, and we will come tomorrow.” For the specific negotiation results, the staff member said that he could wait for the official results.

Rare disease or talk this afternoon

The reporter from the health client of the People’s Daily learned on the spot that the highly valued drug negotiation for rare disease, which has attracted much attention, will be held from the afternoon of January 6 to the morning of January 7.

According to the preliminary examination catalogue of medical insurance previously published by the Medical Insurance Bureau, the number of rare disease drugs discussed by participating countries this year reached 19, the highest number over the years, and the coverage of disease categories was further expanded. In addition to the oral drug Rispiran oral solution powder for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the first drug for treating Castleman’s disease, the first drug for treating Castleman’s disease, the Lanarizumab injection for preventing hereditary angioedema, the drug for injection of verasidase a for treating Gaucher’s disease type 1, and other high-value drugs for rare diseases are included.

In the medical insurance negotiation in 2021, the therapeutic drug of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Nostradamus sodium injection, was reduced from 700000/needle to 33000/needle. The”soul bargaining” made the rare disease SMA receive widespread attention, but it was also seen as a breakthrough of the high value rare disease drug”zero” in the medical insurance negotiation.

At the scene of the medical insurance negotiation, the person in charge of market access of a rare disease drug R&D pharmaceutical company in China told the reporter,”The medical insurance negotiation of rare disease drugs may be the most anxious. The new drugs just came into the market this year, and we missed this medical insurance negotiation, but this time we have a competitor to participate, so we will come ahead of time to check on the situation, so as to prepare for the negotiation next year.”

A person in charge of research and development of domestic biopharmaceutical enterprises who did not want to be named disclosed to the health client reporter of the People’s Daily,”This (negotiation) is the first time to implement simple renewal rules and non exclusive drug negotiation rules, which can be seen as progress in expected management of medical insurance fund purchase. In our expectation, the new rules and new atmosphere may be better for drugs with real clinical value and innovative pharmaceutical enterprises with cost advantages than in previous years, but the purpose of medical insurance is actually to control costs. Whether the overall decline will slow marginally remains to be verified.”