Move will help cut patients' costs, standardize market
China abolished import tariffs on up to 28 types of foreign-produced drugs, including certain cancer drugs, starting from Tuesday, a move that experts said could help set new standards for the country's pharmaceutical market.
The move was announced in a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on April 23.
From now on, only a few imported medicines such as certain alkaloid drugs will face import duties. All imported cancer treatment drugs will be charged zero tariff, the MOF said.
According to media reports, the tariff rate on most imported drugs was about 2 percent.
A Shanghai resident, whose wife was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, said that many oncology treatments were "too expensive" for his family.
One drug called Herceptin, a targeted therapy for certain types of breast cancer, cost more than 20,000 yuan ($3,158) per dose when his wife was diagnosed with the illness in 2014, the resident told the Global Times on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.
The drug must usually be taken monthly for more than one year.
"Doctors can't force you to use the drug, but many patients choose to pay for it because there are no domestic alternatives, and they don't want to lose any chance of recovery," he said.
The man disclosed that the same medicine cost only about half as much in Hong Kong.
"Someone suggested that I buy Hong Kong-imported Herceptin, but I didn't, mostly because big hospitals in Shanghai don't give injections that are imported via questionable channels. Also, Herceptin must be handled carefully in transport, so I can't fully trust private importing channels," he noted.
According to a report of yicaiglobal.com on April 24, after the abolition of the tariffs, the prices of related cancer-curing medicines will fall as much as 20 percent on average.
A biological product clinical researcher named Diana Peng said that the tariff overhaul will help standardize the imported drug market. In the past, she said, many dealers would mark up prices on those drugs in the name of import tariffs, which they could get away with because the import process was not open and transparent. With zero tariffs, they can't do that anymore.
The MOF also said that the government will take other steps such as centralized procurement, increased imports and broader coverage of these drugs (especially for cancer treatment) by domestic medical insurance regime.
The government has in recent years increased the range of imported drugs that are covered by domestic medical insurance. Herceptin, for example, was included starting middle 2017.
The husband in Shanghai said that now, he can buy a dose of Herceptin for about 7,000 yuan, with the rest being paid by the government via the medical insurance system.
Peng nevertheless said that at the current stage it's unlikely all kinds of imported cancer drugs can be included in the national medical insurance. Particularly for some third- or fourth-tier cities, local governments are unlikely to pay for those costly drugs.
