News from the Beijing News (Reporter Zhang Xiulan) Following the first joint procurement of the National Inter-Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine (Material) Purchasing Alliance this year, Chinese herbal decoction pieces have once again ushered in centralized procurement. Recently, the Shanxi Provincial Pharmaceutical Equipment Centralized Bidding Procurement Network issued a notice to organize the medical institutions in the province to carry out the centralized procurement of Chinese herbal medicine pieces and fill in the procurement data of related varieties. Ningxia and Shandong also issued notices last week to start reporting data related to some varieties of Chinese herbal medicines. As the “hardest hit area” for unqualified medicines, Chinese herbal decoction pieces have always been less concentrated in the industry. Deng Yong, a professor of law at Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said in an interview with the Beijing News that the development of centralized procurement will help standardize the quality of Chinese herbal decoction pieces, and the industry concentration will also be improved.
Multi-province collection of “targeting” Chinese herbal medicine pieces
< p>Last week, Shanxi, Ningxia, and Shandong successively organized and carried out the work of filling in and reporting the procurement data of related varieties of Chinese herbal decoction pieces, and the centralized procurement of Chinese herbal medicine pieces began again.
The centralized collection of Shanxi traditional Chinese medicine pieces includes 21 varieties, involving common varieties such as Astragalus, Codonopsis, and honeysuckle. The centralized collection list is set for each variety. There are two specifications of selected goods and unified goods, and each specification specifies grade requirements. Taking astragalus as an example, the selection specification requires thick slices with a diameter of ≥0.8cm; the unified goods specifications require thick slices with a diameter of ≥0.5cm.
Ningxia also organized medical institutions at all levels to fill in the data related to some varieties of Chinese herbal medicines; “Notice on Filling and Reporting Data Related to the Varieties of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pieces” shows that according to the work arrangement of the Sanming Purchasing Alliance (National) Inter-Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine (Material) Purchasing Alliance, the work of filling in the data related to some varieties of traditional Chinese medicine pieces is carried out. The deadline for filling in the three provinces is 24:00 on March 16.
On January 6 this year, the national inter-provincial traditional Chinese medicine (material) procurement alliance was launched for the first time. (District, City) initiated the establishment, and the first batch of participating areas covered more than 9,500 medical institutions in 86 cities across the country. The first batch of joint procurement will focus on Chinese herbal decoction pieces (including formula granules), and the cumulative reported amount will exceed 10 billion yuan.
The market for Chinese herbal decoction pieces has continued to grow in recent years. Data show that in 2018, the scale of my country’s traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces processing market exceeded 250 billion yuan, reaching 263.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.8%. From 2011 to 2018, the scale of my country’s traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces processing market increased from 87.4 billion yuan to 263.7 billion yuan. During the period, the average compound annual growth rate of my country’s traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces processing market was 17.1%, and the proportion of traditional Chinese medicine pieces in the pharmaceutical industry showed an increasing trend year by year. .
There are many listed companies in the market size of 100 billion. Kangmei Pharmaceutical focuses on the production and sales of Chinese herbal decoction pieces, of which the production and sales scale of herbal decoction pieces once ranked first in the industry. Tailong Pharmaceutical, Shouxiangu, etc. followed closely.
Possible to change the status quo of good and bad industries
In the quality sampling inspection of Chinese herbal pieces/materials in various provinces in 2019, 1,858 batches of 5,865 batches of Chinese medicine pieces/materials were unqualified, accounting for 31.68%. A reporter from the Beijing News had previously reviewed 46 unqualified drug information released by the former State Food and Drug Administration in 2017 and found that there were 19 unqualified information on drugs, 22 unqualified information on Chinese herbal decoction pieces and Chinese medicinal materials, and 5 medicinal excipients and drugs. Packaging material failure information. Among the 1,107 batches of unqualified products, 611 batches of unqualified Chinese herbal medicines, accounting for 65.98%, include many well-known enterprises in the industry such as Sinopharm Holding, Yunnan Baiyao, Kangmei Pharmaceutical, and Harbin Pharmaceutical Group.
This has a certain relationship with the current status of the Chinese herbal medicine industry. According to public data, there are more than 1,000 Chinese herbal decoction pieces processing enterprises in my country, most of which are small in scale, with many production varieties and low industry market concentration. An industry insider previously said in an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News that many companies in the industry even produce in workshops, and the production process is relatively simple. According to the requirements of relevant departments, Chinese herbal decoction pieces production enterprises should obtain GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice for Pharmaceutical Products) certificate, but many enterprises still follow the original production process in order to reduce costs after obtaining the certificate, and abandon the GMP standard in actual production .
The development of centralized procurement is expected to change the status quo of the Chinese herbal medicine industry. Deng Yong, a professor at the Department of Law of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that the quality of Chinese herbal decoction pieces has always been uneven, and centralized procurement will help standardize the quality of Chinese herbal medicine pieces, which is expected to force enterprises to improve product quality. In addition, with the development of centralized procurement, the market will also realize the survival of the fittest, the concentration of the Chinese herbal medicine industry can be improved, and a group of enterprises with strength and service capabilities will be formed.