Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec 15;17(24):9415.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17249415.

The Impacts of National Centralized Drug Procurement Policy on Drug Utilization and Drug Expenditures: The Case of Shenzhen, China

Lei Chen  1   2 , Ying Yang  1   2 , Mi Luo  1 , Borui Hu  1 , Shicheng Yin  1 , Zongfu Mao  1   2
Affiliations

The Impacts of National Centralized Drug Procurement Policy on Drug Utilization and Drug Expenditures: The Case of Shenzhen, China

Lei Chen et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

In 2019, the Chinese government implemented the first round of the National Centralized Drug Procurement (NCDP) pilot (so-called "4 + 7" policy) in mainland China, in which 25 drugs were included. We conducted this study to examine the impacts of NCDP policy on drug utilization and expenditures, and to clarify the main factors contributing to drug expenditure changes. This study used drug purchasing order data from the Centralized Drug Procurement Survey in Shenzhen 2019. Drugs related to the "4 + 7" policy were selected as study samples, including 23 "4 + 7" policy-related varieties and 15 basic alternative drugs. Driving factors for drug expenditures changes were analyzed using A.M. index system analysis (Addis A. & Magrini N.' method). After the implementation of the NCDP policy, the volume of "4 + 7" policy-related varieties increased by 73.8%, among which winning products jumped by 1638.2% and non-winning products dropped by 70.8%; the expenditures of "4 + 7" policy-related varieties decreased by 36.9%. Structure effects (0.47) and price effects (0.78) negatively contributed to the increase in drug expenditures of "4 + 7" policy-related varieties, while volume effects (1.73) had positive influence. NCDP policy successfully decreased drug expenditures of "4 + 7" policy-related varieties with structure effects playing a leading role. However, total drug expenditures were not effectively controlled due to the increasing use of alternative drugs.

Keywords: National Centralized Drug Procurement policy; drug expenditures; drug utilization; volume-based procurement; “4 + 7”.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Monthly trends of volume and expenditures of winning and non-winning products among “4 + 7” policy-related drugs from January 2018 to December 2019.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Monthly trends of volume and expenditures of “4 + 7” policy-related varieties and basic alternative varieties from January 2018 to December 2019.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bastida J.L., Mossialos E. Pharmaceutical expenditure in Spain: Cost and control. Int. J. Health Serv. 2000;30:597–616. doi: 10.2190/YL3J-QK9B-0NMQ-KMVK. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Smith C. Retail prescription drug spending in the national health accounts. Health Aff. 2004;23:160–167. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.23.1.160. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wei M., Wang X., Zhang D., Zhang X. Relationship between the number of hospital pharmacists and hospital pharmaceutical expenditure: A macro-level panel data model of fixed effects with individual and time. BMC Health Serv. Res. 2020:20. doi: 10.1186/s12913-020-4907-2. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Parkinson B., Sermet C., Clement F., Crausaz S., Godman B., Garner S., Choudhury M., Pearson S.A., Viney R., Lopert R., et al. Disinvestment and value-based purchasing strategies for pharmaceuticals: An international review. Pharmacoeconomics. 2015;33:905–924. doi: 10.1007/s40273-015-0293-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. The IQVIA Institute Global Medicine Spending and Usage Trends Outlook to 2024. [(accessed on 7 December 2020)];2020 Available online: https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports/global-medici....

Publication types

Substances