Prices of anti-cancer drugs reduced in some provinces

Many provinces recently have seen the prices of anti-cancer drugs reduced, Beijing News reported.

Hubei province in Central China has reduced the prices of 20 types of drugs, including Inlyta, a drug treating kidney cancer, produced by pharmaceutical company Pfizer, with the reduction rate ranging from 3.4 percent to 10.2 percent.

And according to Beijing's centralized drug procurement platform, pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Xian Janssen, have reduced the prices of some anti-cancer drugs. Among them is crizotinib, a drug that treats non-small cell lung cancer, of which the price has been cut from 53,400 yuan ($7,835) to 51,348 yuan per box. 

The news came after the country lifted the import tariffs on 103 of 138 anti-cancer drugs available in May, and significantly reduced the value added tax levied on these drugs.

On the list of 103 anti-cancer drugs, 82 types have been included in the governments' basic medical insurance programs.

And among the 21 drugs that are not covered by the medical insurance, 17 are patented drugs, which the government hopes to include in medical insurance programs through negotiations with pharmaceutical companies.

On July 12, the State Administration of Medical Insurance said that negotiations on centralized government procurement of anti-cancer drugs will be carried out at the provincial level.

According to estimates by Latitude Health, a health marketing consultancy, the government's efforts are expected to reduce the prices of imported anti-cancer drugs by 10 percent.