The Research On The Legal Regulation Of Drug Prices

Problems in the field of medical and health have always been hot issues in society, and the reform in medical field is also a globally recognized problem. China has implemented medical reform for years in which some achievements have been made. However, the general feeling of the public is that it is harder and harder to pay for medical treatment, and for that reason, they are afraid to get sick more and more. That not only makes the achievements compromised, but also reduces the public trust in government. An important reason of high medical consumption is the high consumption of drugs. The prices of drugs are unrealistically high in the public hospitals of our country and that has been a problem existing for many years. The “drug-maintaining-medicine” policy applied by our country has been considered the historical reason of the unrealistically high prices of drugs. With the cancellation of drug bonus system, the “drug-maintaining-medicine” policy has been repealed, but the drug consumption in public hospitals still remains very high. That has something to do with the existing defects in the medicine field system itself. Government pricing system and centralized bid procurement system on drugs are the principal means of controlling drug prices in public hospitals by government. Government pricing system controls the highest prices on the whole side, while centralized bid procurement system controls the purchase prices of drugs and guarantees the quality of drugs in public hospitals. Since government pricing system on drugs has been implemented for years, it has played a certain role in controlling drug prices. But with the development of the economy in our country, the market is going to mature gradually, thus it is difficult for government pricing on drugs to play the role on controlling drug prices. In previous studies, the defects of government pricing system on drugs and the less fulfillment of implementation have been considered the main causes of high medicine expenses in public hospitals of our country. In 2015, with the consent of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the Human Resources and Social Security Ministry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and the Food and Drug Supervision Administration formulated “the opinion to push forward the reform of drug prices”, and it provides that since June 1, 2015, a vast majority of drugs are excluded from the government pricing drugs except narcotic drugs and the first class psychotropic substances. Putting drug prices under the market regulation means that the drug pricing in our country has formally entered the stage of market regulation. In terms of controlling drug prices, subjects like whether market regulation can achieve the desired effects, what kind of role does the government play in the process, and how do the market and government collaborate with each other after cancelling government pricing on drugs are all research topics of urgent need as well as the focuses of this thesis.Drug is a kind of basic commodities of livelihood, and the discretion of drug consumption and whether the citizens’ rights to life and health can be protected have a close relation. The public goods attribute of drugs makes the regulation of drug prices must involve the participation of government while the ordinary commodity attribute of drugs requires market fully involve in the process of price formation. After the cancellation of government pricing, the burden of government on controlling drug consumption has not been relieved. However, government should take more responsibilities to ensure full competition of market. And the top priority is to make good legal construction of relevant systems now.Medical institutions are the main places of drug-using in our country. Every link in the circulation of drugs inside medical institutions affects the formation of drug prices. First, in the link of drug purchasing, the centralized bid procurement is the main way of purchasing, and it is also the principal means of controlling drug prices at the current stage. Provincial drug procurement departments selects qualified drugs with lower prices through the way of bidding in order to control the prices of drugs which enters the medical institutions. But from the previous practice, we can see that there are many defects in the centralized bid procurement system, so a lot of work has to be done in the setting of tendering agencies and the improvement of tendering modes. From the drug procurement link to control drug prices will be the major means of government regulation on drug prices. To improve the existing drug procurement system is urgent. Second, with the perfecting of our country’s medical insurance system, medical insurance institutions, as the main payer of drug costs, should be actively involved in the formation mechanism of drug prices to control the paying amounts of drugs. To control medical costs through medical insurance system will be a trend in the future. Medical insurance system starts late in our country, but the coverage of medical insurance is increasing year by year. As there is no reasonable medical insurance payment standard, the problem that medical insurance funds cannot make the ends meet is becoming more and more serious. The perfecting of the mechanism of controlling medical costs through medical insurance is not only of great significance to control drug prices, but also an urgent requirement by the self-development of medical insurance system.Having canceled the government pricing, government and market came into a collaborative relationship respecting the controlling of drug prices. In the aspects of guaranteeing full competition environment of markets and legal regulation of relevant links, the government bears difficult tasks.