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- Govt. slashes cost of overpriced drugs
Date: 24-Jan-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE government will slash the prices of more than 240 drugs by 20 percent while increasing the prices of about 100 other medicines that are in high demand, the country's top economic planning body announced yesterday.
This is the 17th cut in the costs of drugs since the government resumed price controls over some drugs in September 2005, in an attempt to control soaring healthcare costs.
The price cuts, directed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), will take effect Friday.
Some drugs in this round of price cuts will be slashed by as much as 85 percent, saving consumers about 7 billion yuan (US$900 million), said the NDRC.
'We will continue to lower the costs of overpriced drugs. We will stop price cuts of low-cost drugs that are widely used to encourage production and we will properly raise the prices of medicines that are in high demand and often sold out,'said an unnamed NDRC official, who did not say by how much drug prices will increase.
The NDRC investigated the differences between the production costs and retail prices of a number of medicines before finalizing its price reduction plan.
The NDRC slashed the prices of 67 cancer drugs by an average of 23 percent in June and cut the prices of 32 traditional Chinese medicines used in cancer treatment by an average of 14.5 percent in November.
Those price cuts saved consumers a total of 7.9 billion yuan.
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