Negotiators work to bring down nation's prescriptions

When Mu Anna negotiates with drugmakers who want their treatments included on China's national medical reimbursement list, her primary concern is securing high-quality drugs at an affordable price.

The official with the National Healthcare Security Administration has made it her goal to make sure that people enrolled in China's basic national health insurance program — about 95 percent of its population of around 1.4 billion — get the best deal.

The costs of drugs included on the national reimbursement list are paid back to patients via the public healthcare fund either partially or in full.

"Price negotiations take into account the potential benefits that drug manufacturers can reap, the sustainability of the basic insurance fund and patient burdens," Mu said.

While achieving reduced prices to expand affordable access to medicines is undoubtedly the foremost goal, she said that pharmaceutical companies, despite it looking like they might lose money on the surface, actually gain greater access to a much wider market.

"That's why I say that we — the healthcare authorities and the drugmakers — advance in tandem toward the same direction," she added.

Mu, originally from the healthcare security bureau in Southwest China's Chongqing, was one of the negotiators involved in the most recent adjustment of the national reimbursement list.