Drug prices to change

China is mulling an adjustment in the prices of Chinese herbal extracts or Chinese patent medicines, the first of its kind in six years, and the details will come out by the end of this year, financial portal caixin.com reported Tuesday citing industry sources.

According to the report, prices of some of the Chinese patent medicines will decline by as much as 25 percent, while some rare and exclusively developed patent drugs will have prices increased up to 10 percent to ensure quality in light of rising material and labor costs.

There are 2,598 domestic Chinese patent medicine producers. The sector brought in sales revenue of 360 billion yuan ($59.3 billion) in 2012, with annual growth rate of 26.2 percent, higher than the average growth rate of the overall pharmaceutical industry.