China Kicks off the 7th Round of Volume-based Procurement (VBP) of Drugs

by Grace Wang Jun 24, 2022

On June 20, China National Joint Drug Procurement Office announced the start of the 7th round of volume-based procurement (VBP), covering 59 drugs with different active pharmaceutical ingredients. Companies qualified to supply the drugs are required to submit tenders on July 12.

Procurement Volume, Term, and Price Limit

The office also released each drug's total procurement volume, the percentage of procurement volume, and the price limit.

For most chemical drugs, the procurement rules are as follows:

Number of bid winners

Procurement Volume of the 1st Year / the Total Agreed Procurement Volume * 100%

Procurement Term

1

50%

1 year

2

60%

1 year

3

70%

2 years

≥ 4

80%

3 years

For example, Afatinib Tablets (30mg)'s tender price limit is required to be no higher than 112.3267 yuan. The drug's total procurement volume of the first year in the procurement term is 596,327 tablets. If there is only one successful bidder for the drug, 50% of the total volume, that is, 298,170 tablets will be purchased from the winner company. If there are two bid winners, 60% of the total volume—357,795 tablets—will be supplied by the two winner companies together.

However, for special antibiotic or antifungal drugs, such as Meropenem Injection, Micafungin Injection, Tigecycline Injection, and Cefepime Injection, the first-year procurement volume takes up a lower percentage in the total volume:

Number of bid winners

Procurement Volume of the 1st Year / the Total Agreed Procurement Volume * 100%

Procurement Term

1

30%

1 year

2

40%

1 year

≥ 3

50%

2 years

For instance, Meropenem Injections' total purchase volume is 7,286,887 injections. The first-year volume will be 2,186,064 injections for a single bid winner, 2,914,753 injections for two, and 3,643,450 injections for three.

How Will Medical Institutions Procure the VBP Drugs

  • During the procurement term, medical institutions will prioritize the use of the bid winners' drugs and ensure the purchase is completed according to the planned procurement volume.

  • While prioritizing the use of VBP drugs, medical institutions can buy properly-priced drugs at a proper volume outside the VBP if they need extra drugs.

  • For those in national and provincial lists of drugs under intensive monitoring for reasonable use, or whose clinical needs changes significantly due to public health events, whether the medical institutions complete the planned purchase volume can be evaluated based on the ratio of the same kind of VBP drugs used by the institutions.

Update on the 7th VBP:

Articles on Previous VBPs:

Grace Wang
ChemLinked Regulatory Analyst & Editor
+ FOLLOW
Copyright: unless otherwise stated all contents of this website are ©2024 - REACH24H Consulting Group - All Rights Reserved - For permission to use any content on this site, please contact cleditor@chemlinked.com
You May Also Like
Most Popular