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SHANGHAI, May 27 (Reuters) - China will carry outwide-ranging pricing inspections on drug firms, hospitals andprocurement bodies from June 1, the country's top watchdog saidon Friday, extending a tough cost-cutting campaign to reduce theprice of healthcare.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) saidin a statement it would carry out the probes from June 1 untilthe end of October, checking the "pricing behaviour" of drugfirms and related institutions.
Local media reported earlier this month that China wasplanning to launch "large-scale and systematic" anti-trustinvestigation into foreign and local drug firms.
Drug prices have become a hot-button issue for patients andpoliticians in China, forcing drug companies to re-think theirpricing strategy in the country to keep regulators on-side.Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZenca, alongwith China's Betta Pharmaceuticals, recently agreed to cutprices on specific drugs by as much as 67 percent.
The NDRC said the investigations would include drug makers,medical institutions, disease prevention and control centres,blood banks, drug bidding platforms, procurement bodies andindustry associations.
"The focus will be on abnormal price fluctuations of bulkmedicines and various types of drugs," the NDRC said.
"In the worst, most heinous cases, we will use our utmoststrength and might to protect the process of fair competition inthe medicine market."
China is pursuing an ambitious programme of healthcarereforms to improve the public health system and to reduce itsreliance on generic and more innovative drugs from overseas.
The country's fast-growing healthcare market is a magnet forglobal drug makers, medical device firms and hospital operators,all looking to take a slice of a healthcare bill that isexpected to hit $1 trillion by 2020, according to McKinsey & Co. (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
