Cancer drug overpriced, admit officials

By Jane Chen | May 18, 2010, Tuesday |

Online Edition

THE pricing authority of central China's Hunan Province has admitted it overcharged hospitals for an anti-cancer drug sold to patients at 14 times the wholesale price.

Guo Zhiqiu from Hunan Pricing Bureau said yesterday that the bureau is also investigating how the drug appeared on its online catalog and got approved for sale to hospitals, Xinhua news agency reported today.

Earlier reports said Hunan Xiangya No.2 Hospital sold the asparagus pills at 213 yuan (US$31.20) a bottle to patients, compared with the factory price of 15.5 yuan from manufacturer Sichuan Chuanda Huaxi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. Doctors prescribing the drug are blamed for pocketing most of the profits.

The report has sparked a nationwide public outcry against drug overpricing.

Guo said the asparagus pills have been on Hunan's government-sponsored medicine catalog since 2004. The pricing authority set the guideline retail price at 160 yuan per bottle in 2006 and raised it to 213 yuan the following year.

In 2008, Hunan lowered the cost to 136 yuan, reflecting prices in neighboring provinces. Since the drug was only available at hospitals, no retail prices at drugstores were available for reference, Guo explained.

Guo admitted the drug was overpriced at 136 yuan because the pricing bureau failed to note the factory prices, the report said.

He said the bureau will correct the error and intensify price supervision on hospital medicines.

To curb overcharging for medicine, the Chinese government introduced a system of bidding for collective purchases of medicine in 2001.

All hospital medicine must be purchased according to prices set by the government, and hospitals are allowed to charge patients 15 percent above the guide price.

At present 80 percent of medicine in China is sold by hospitals.

Nation

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Cancer drug overpriced, admit officials

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