BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government has rolled out guidelines on improving the drug price formation mechanism, with the aim of keeping drug prices within a reasonable range.

These guidelines, recently issued by the General Office of the State Council, stress the need to refine the market-oriented mechanism for drug price formation, support the high-quality development of the pharmaceutical industry, and ensure that the people have access to medicines that are both high in quality and reasonable in price.

This photo taken on Feb. 22, 2023 shows pharmacist Zhang Haiou (L) helping a customer on medicine consultation and medication instruction at Baita Temple pharmacy in Beijing. (Photo: Xinhua)

The guidelines propose optimizing the initial pricing mechanism for newly marketed drugs, including innovative drugs.

In the case of high-level innovative drugs with a high degree of innovation and significant clinical value, their prices at the early stage of market entry should reflect the high R&D investment and high risk involved, and remain relatively stable for a certain period of time, according to the guidelines.

The document calls for giving full play to the roles of commercial health insurance and charitable funding in the pricing of innovative drugs, while introducing multi-party participation in price negotiations for innovative drugs to broaden their payment channels.

To ensure the stable supply and pricing of drugs in short supply, the guidelines highlight dynamic adjustments to both national and provincial drug shortage lists, as well as to lists for clinically essential drugs prone to shortages.

Regarding the pricing of anaesthetic and psychotropic substances, the policy states that government-guided prices should be applied to anaesthetic and Category I psychotropic drugs in accordance with the law.

The guidelines call for leveraging the guiding role of medical insurance payment standards in drug price formation, and improving the price formation mechanism for bulk procurement.

The guidelines also emphasize beefing up law enforcement regarding pharmaceutical prices and anti-monopoly law enforcement, warning that severe legal actions will be taken against illegal practices in the pharmaceutical and raw material sectors, including monopolistic pricing and market manipulation.