"The house is gone, and the family is broken"
In 2018, this line in "I Am Not the God of Medicine" moved countless audiences, but they never thought that this movie, which was adapted from a real case, would have a sequel in reality!
Image source: Tencent Video "I Am Not the God of Medicine"
A drug called "polymyxin B sulfate" was exported abroad at a price of 65 yuan, but it was sold at a "sky-high price" in China, even if it was included in the medical insurance, it still led to countless drug-using families being broken by it.
Why is this drug so priced so high in China! What went wrong?
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Cheap "sky-high drugs"
Once upon a time, seeking medical treatment became a very shy behavior for residents, because there was often a situation of "seeing a doctor but not taking medicine" when seeing a doctor, and this situation gradually decreased after the country gradually improved medical insurance.
However, even if the country's medical insurance bears most of the consumption, there are still many families who cannot afford to consume this "sky-high drug", which is "polymyxin B sulfate".
Many people have heard of this drug for the first time, and its effect is mainly used to treat infections, and it is difficult to fully understand the specific symptoms and therapeutic effects of infection without certain medical knowledge.
If it is a newly developed drug, then the price problem will not surface, because there is no major breakthrough in technology, and its development and production costs can be imagined to be expensive.
But the problem is that this drug was developed and marketed as early as the middle of the 20th century, and even if the technology has not advanced for such a long time, it should not be sold at a sky-high price, because its own research and development cost is not high.
However, the "sky-high" positioning of this drug will continue until 2023, but why is it sold at a "sky-high price" in China, and how does the country deal with it?
Black-hearted businessman
It all started when the drug was developed, when it was rarely used on patients due to significant side effects.
However, due to the surge in the frequency of "gram-negative bacteria" detected in hospital patients in recent years, the market demand for it has skyrocketed.
This has allowed some domestic pharmaceutical companies to see business opportunities, but there are almost no raw materials for the production of this drug in China, they can only import from abroad, in April 2010, Wuhan Huihai became the agent of Denmark Acelli in the Chinese market.
After becoming an agent, Wuhan Huihai soon tasted the sweetness, and they wanted to monopolize the Chinese market of this drug and seek to maximize benefits.
So they bribed the head of A.Celli China to use his authority not to open sales to other domestic pharmaceutical companies, so that Wuhan Huihai completely monopolized the market of "polymyxin sulfate B" in China.
In 2015, Wuhan Huihai officially cooperated with Shanghai Biochemical, Huihai provided the distribution rights, and Shanghai Biochemical was responsible for the production of polymyxin B sulfate.
After the two of them discussed and finalized, they placed more than 30 pharmaceutical distributors in the middle of each other, and the price of this drug was increased layer by layer, and the final price of the drug costing less than 100 yuan was set at tens of thousands of yuan.
With their cooperation, the price of polymyxin B sulfate continues to be high, but they are still intensifying the price gouging.
Even later, Wuhan Huihai also cooperated with Wuhan Kede and Minkang Pharmaceutical, and the four pharmaceutical companies monopolized the domestic polymyxin sulfate market, so this drug was completely sold to a "sky-high price".
And because they monopolize the domestic market, they not only control the price, but also the supply, they only have the black money they earn in their hearts, and they don't care about the lives of domestic patients at all.
Although the state has included this drug in the medical insurance for a long time and has continuously subsidized the medical insurance, these four black-hearted companies have kept raising prices and eating all the state subsidies, and the people have not been left with benefits.
Those patients who can't afford to take medicine can only be forced to bear the pain in the hospital, I don't know how many people have lost their precious lives because they can't afford to take medicine, these four pharmaceutical companies are not only ignoring the law, but also ignoring life!
With the development of the information age, patients in need have learned that the price of this drug in foreign countries is quite low, only 65 yuan when converted into RMB, which makes domestic patients begin to suspect that there is a problem with the price of this drug.
The country thundered
At the beginning of public opinion, the relevant departments immediately launched an investigation into these four pharmaceutical companies, and soon the results of the investigation came out.
If the pricing of these four pharmaceutical companies is the same as that of foreign countries, they can make considerable profits through the huge domestic market and official subsidies.
However, for their own selfish desires, they completely ignore that we are of the same root and origin, and when the patients are tortured and struggling on the brink of life and death, they sit leisurely on their own black money.
In the end, Shanghai First Biochemical was fined 462 million yuan, Wuhan Huihai was fined 58.6894 million yuan, Wuhan Kede was fined 689 million yuan, and Minkang Pharmaceutical was fined 9.4856 million yuan, with a total fine of about 1.219 billion yuan.
After fines and rectifications were imposed on four pharmaceutical companies, the sky-high price of the drug was finally no longer "sky-high", from 2,303 yuan to 270 yuan, and it was lowered again to 123 yuan per branch in January this year.
This medicine has finally become a civilian medicine that can be used by patients, if it is not for the thunderous means of the state, I don't know how long the four companies will be "arrogant".
The monopoly in medicine is not limited to this drug, and the pharmaceutical monopoly found by the state in 2023 alone will be involved in the case, with an amount of up to 1.772 billion yuan and a total fine of 2.163 billion yuan.
Even large pharmaceutical companies such as Northeast Pharmaceutical and Grand Pharmaceutical have violated the "National Anti-Monopoly Law", and they have also received due sanctions, and our country will never let go of any criminal acts.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to Western medicine, the price of some traditional Chinese medicines in the mainland has also risen very sharply, but the increase in traditional Chinese medicine is different from polymyxin B sulfate, only because the market supply is extremely reduced.
In recent years, due to the increase in people's attention to the health care of traditional Chinese medicine, the market demand for traditional Chinese medicine has also increased, which has led to the shortage of Chinese medicinal materials and soaring prices.
There is still a long way to go for the supervision of the production and sales of traditional Chinese medicine, because there are too many intermediate links such as cultivation, picking, processing, production and sales of traditional Chinese medicine, which is not conducive to the development of work.
In short, the harmony and stability of the pharmaceutical market is related to the life and health of the majority of patients, and in order to enhance the people's sense of happiness and gain, it is imperative to create a fair, just and open market environment!
References:
Communist Party of China - "Why Four Pharmaceutical Companies Were Fined 1.2 Billion Yuan" - 2024-01-04
Daily Economic News - "Behind the Fines of 1.219 Billion Yuan for Monopoly of Four Pharmaceutical Companies: Why Can the Price of Drugs Costing More Than 10 Yuan Increase 100 Times?" 》——2023-12-23
Guangming.com - Why does the price of Chinese herbal medicines keep rising? Reporter Explores the Reasons Behind It" - 2024-05-27