Heard on the Street: Beijing’s health-care reforms are giving global pharmaceutical companies better access to the world’s second-largest drug market
There has been a tectonic shift in China’s drug policy in the past couple of years. The government is approving innovative foreign drugs at a record pace, while trying to push down sky-high prices. Fifty-one innovative drugs, 80% of them from global pharmaceutical companies, were approved last year, up from just five in 2016, according to Deloitte.
Top drugmakers get better access to the world’s second most valuable market for pharmaceutical products, after the U.S. However, China also is trying to clamp down on runaway drug prices. Manufacturers will have to slash prices to get on a list of treatments partially covered by China’s state insurance program. Many might still choose to be on the list, because the price cuts could be offset by the volume gains.
In the short term, sharply lower generics prices could hurt local and foreign drugmakers. Global pharmaceutical companies have so far mostly been selling off-patent drugs in the country, which can be very lucrative: U.S. generic-drug prices are on average 45% cheaper than those in China, according to a Credit Suisse report in March.
Global manufacturers likely won’t be able to compete purely on the basis of cost with domestic rivals going forward, but the new market in innovative drugs could compensate for those losses. Companies with a head start in China, such as AstraZeneca, Merck or Pfizer, look to be well-positioned. Merck’s pharmaceutical revenue in China last quarter grew 84% from a year ago, for example, due to strong sales of its Gardasil HPV vaccine.
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