The centralized drug procurement organized by the state (hereinafter referred to as "centralized drug procurement") has not been two years since the policy was officially released in November 218 and implemented on the ground, which has had a far-reaching impact on the development of the pharmaceutical industry. The multi-round efforts of centralized purchasing are accelerating the reconstruction of the marketing system of the pharmaceutical industry.
For a long time, the hospital market has been the main sales position of prescription drugs. After the promotion of centralized purchasing policy, the unsuccessful varieties almost lost the main public hospital sales market in China. In order to regain the market share in the past, these varieties have been sold in the retail market outside the hospital. At the same time, more and more pharmaceutical companies began to cultivate their own retail prescription teams and lay out retail channels in advance. The pharmacy market, which was once regarded as a "chicken rib" by some prescription drug companies, has now received unprecedented attention.
pharmaceutical companies make efforts to retail
centralized procurement has accelerated the substitution of domestic generic drugs for original research drugs with expired patents to a certain extent. In the past, in the hospital market, the original drugs with expired patents not only occupied the dominant position, but also enjoyed the advantage of high brand premium. Therefore, before centralized purchasing is started, most expired original pharmaceutical companies will not make great efforts to lay out the retail market outside the hospital. Nowadays, the original research drugs with expired patents are actively "close" to the retail market.
Take the first batch of lipid-lowering drug "rosuvastatin calcium" as an example. AstraZeneca, as the original research manufacturer, was not selected in the "4+7" pilot city or the alliance area. After missing most of the national public hospital market, the original research manufacturer chose to launch the retail market. According to CMH data of Zhongkang, in the first quarter of this year, the sales of rosuvastatin calcium from AstraZeneca in the pharmacy market reached 41 million yuan, a significant increase of nearly 7% compared with the same period last year.
"Take the varieties involved in the previous two batches of centralized purchasing as an example. In the past, we sold these varieties with almost zero or negative gross profit, but after centralized purchasing, there have been two major changes: First, the successful bidder actively communicated with us and was willing to give us some distribution fees, which may be three to five points lower, but something is better than nothing; Second, the unsuccessful varieties also came to cooperate with our retail enterprises. In the past, it was difficult for us to cooperate with them. " At the current Xipu meeting, Xie Zilong, the chairman of ordinary people, revealed.
He Gan, general manager of the People's Prescription Drug Purchasing Center, said at this Xipu Meeting that the opportunity brought by centralized purchasing to the pharmacy industry is that the outflow of prescriptions is expected to land. "First, the drug price has dropped precipitously, and the hospital pharmacy has changed from a profit sector to a cost sector. The hospital has gradually changed its attitude towards prescription outflow, giving retail pharmacies the opportunity to undertake it; Second, prescription manufacturers will accelerate cooperation with pharmacies, manufacturers of substandard varieties will take the initiative to deepen cooperation with retail pharmacies, and manufacturers' resources will also be tilted towards pharmacies, which will benefit the development of large chain pharmacies. "
recently, yixintang said in an investor survey that, on the whole, although the gross profit margin of the variety of centralized purchasing is very low, it has brought new traffic growth opportunities for stores, and at the same time, through the cooperation of some varieties, it has also gained more opportunities for product cooperation, driving new sales and gross profit through other products.
can pharmacies bring incremental benefits?
In the process of expanding the retail market, many pharmacies are also throwing out "hydrangeas". At this Xipu meeting, listed chain pharmacies, including ordinary people (63883.SH), Yixintang (2727.SZ) and Yifeng Pharmacy (63939.SH), successively issued prescription drug management strategies.
Chen Junjie, vice president of Yifeng Co., Ltd., said at this Xipu meeting that the company will expand the management of prescription drugs from the following aspects: first, improve the company's management ability and professional service ability to undertake the outflow of prescriptions; Second, in-depth cooperation with pharmaceutical companies to undertake prescription outflow; The third is to build a self-built Internet hospital platform to fully undertake prescription sources and terminals.
Some people in pharmacies claimed on the spot that prescription drug companies need to provide pharmacies with reasonable market fees if they want to enter the market.
however, can the sales market of pharmacies bring real market increment to prescription drug companies?
in the first batch of centralized procurement for the expansion of the alliance area, Polivi of Sanofi was shortlisted through price reduction. Despite being shortlisted for centralized procurement, the sales scale of Polivi in the hospital market is still shrinking. In the first quarter of this year, Polivi also carried out simultaneous price reduction in retail pharmacies, with the aim of exchanging price for quantity, but the effect has yet to be shown. According to CMH data of Zhongkang, Polivi's sales in pharmacies in the first quarter of this year was 27 million yuan, a decrease of 12 million yuan compared with the same period last year.
For pharmaceutical companies, compared with hospitals, the distribution of the retail market outside the hospital is scattered, and the problem of weak pharmacy service ability of pharmacies themselves has brought constraints to the process of arranging the retail market for pharmaceutical companies to some extent.
For example, in recent years, many pharmacy chains are laying out DTP pharmacies (pharmacies that directly provide more valuable professional services to patients). Different from traditional retail pharmacies that mainly sell OTC drugs (over-the-counter drugs), DTP pharmacies mainly sell high-margin professional drugs, new specialty drugs, self-funded drugs, etc., and are equipped with licensed pharmacists to provide professional guidance and services, which is an advanced model of retail pharmacies.
However, the number of DTP pharmacies that really meet the standard is not much, less than 2. Zhang Yuan, vice president of Qingdao Baiyang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., said that many DTP pharmacies are not standardized in medication and health guidance, medication follow-up records, content and process of drug treatment management, etc. The knowledge source of pharmaceutical service personnel in pharmacies is still single, and there are basic concepts. Confusion.
in the process of forcing prescription drugs to switch to the retail market, pharmacies can enjoy short-term policy dividends, but in the long run, centralized procurement will still accelerate the fission within the pharmacy industry.
"I think that after the normalization of centralized purchasing, the retail industry tends to be more concentrated, because pharmacies with large enough size have certain bargaining power with upstream prescription drug companies, and it is difficult for ordinary small and medium-sized pharmacies to get medium and high gross profit of prescription drugs. Therefore, in this context, centralized purchasing has accelerated the centralized development trend of the retail industry. " Gao Yi, chairman of Yifeng Pharmacy, said at this Xipu meeting.