China to slash prices of antibiotics

China will slash the prices of the most widely-used antibiotics, sources with China's State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) said in Beijing Monday.

The price cut involves 24 kinds of antibiotics with more than 400 specifications. And their prices will be axed by an average 30percent and a maximum 56 percent. Falling raw material prices and import taxes as well as technical updating and rising competition have reduced production costs.

According to the SDRC, this is the largest-ever price cut since2001 to tackle soaring medicine prices in the country which has 900 million rural people without medical insurance and 35 million urban laid-offs.

Some drugs in China are priced by the government and others arepriced by the market. Further cuts are possible but will take timedue to problems leftover from the planned economy system, said theSDRC.

Hospitals are the first to blame. Low-level competition and motivation to profit from selling drugs prevent hospitals from providing cheap drugs. In addition, the medical system reform has failed to restrict the soaring drug prices.

The SDRC said it will continue to slash the drug prices set by the government and intervene to control rising prices of others toreduce the medical expenditure of the people.

Source: Xinhua