China’s drug pricing authority has launched a wide-ranging probe into the costs of medicines at 60 domestic and international drugmakers, ratcheting up the pressure for price cuts.
The investigation by Beijing’s National Development and Reform Commission, which embraces the local affiliates of foreign companies such as Merck of the US, GlaxoSmithKline, Astellas, Baxter Healthcare and Sandoz, comes after a similar NDRC probe resulted in manufacturers of baby milk cutting prices by up to 20 per cent.
The latest action comes at a time of change among senior Chinese government officials, against a backdrop of growing pressure to control escalating spending as the country expands the quality and breadth of medical coverage from richer urban to poorer rural people.