Publicize price of hepatitis B drugs, patients demand

Eight hepatitis B patients have asked the country's price regulator to reconsider a decision not to make public the costs of two drugs produced by British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, as they called for the drugmaker to further reduce the prices.

The patients, all from the hepatitis B carrier rights group Yiyougongyi, said in the group's micro blog that the decision by the National Development and Reform Commission not to publish the costs of two drugs produced by GlaxoSmithKline could harm the interests of patients, adding that they would appeal the decision and request administrative reconsideration from the authority.

The group has long campaigned for the price reduction of hepatitis B drugs, saying that the alleged violations by GSK China, including bribery, have resulted in the price of the drugs being higher than market prices.

In a letter to the patients in October, the NDRC said that the authority has contacted GlaxoSmithKline over the publishing of drug costs, yet the company has refused the request, citing commercial secret reasons.

"The GSK bribery scandal has made the pricing of drugs a public matter. So there are no commercial secrets involved," Lei Chuang, the initiator of the rights group, told news portal efaw.cn.

Lei said the group will consider legal action against the price regulator if their request is denied again.

The two drugs, Lamivudine and Adefovir, have both been listed as medications covered by insurance in the health systems of some provincial areas, which means the cost of the drugs will be met by the patients and the healthcare system.

However, not all healthcare systems nationwide pay for the two drugs, especially those in the rural areas, said Wang Guiqiang, director of the infectious diseases department of the First Hospital with Peking University.

Wang estimated that it will cost a patient 5,000 yuan ($810) to 6,000 yuan a year if the drugs are not covered by healthcare.

"There are alternative drugs available, but the ones GSK offers are already the cheapest ones," he said.

Niu Zhengqian, deputy director of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Enterprises Association, said he believes requiring an enterprise to make public the cost of a product would only be necessary in cases of monopoly. However, in the case of GlaxoSmithKline, there are a number of alternative drugs by domestic producers.

"A company is not a public institution. Thus it has no obligation to ensure the public having full knowledge of the costs of its products," he said.

Statistics by the National Health and Family Planning Commission in 2013 show that China has close to 93 million hepatitis B virus carriers.