Negotiators work to bring down nation's prescriptions

When Mu Anna negotiates with drugmakers who want their treatments included on China's national medical reimbursement list, her primary concern is securing high-quality drugs at an affordable price.

The official with the National Healthcare Security Administration has made it her goal to make sure that people enrolled in China's basic national health insurance program — about 95 percent of its population of around 1.4 billion — get the best deal.

The costs of drugs included on the national reimbursement list are paid back to patients via the public healthcare fund either partially or in full.

"Price negotiations take into account the potential benefits that drug manufacturers can reap, the sustainability of the basic insurance fund and patient burdens," Mu said.

While achieving reduced prices to expand affordable access to medicines is undoubtedly the foremost goal, she said that pharmaceutical companies, despite it looking like they might lose money on the surface, actually gain greater access to a much wider market.

"That's why I say that we — the healthcare authorities and the drugmakers — advance in tandem toward the same direction," she added.

Mu, originally from the healthcare security bureau in Southwest China's Chongqing, was one of the negotiators involved in the most recent adjustment of the national reimbursement list.

Negotiations were held in late October in Beijing and the results were released in late November. The updated list took effect on Jan 1.

A total of 91 medicines used for cancer, diabetes and rare diseases have been added to the list. After the removal of 43 outdated drugs, there are now a total of 3,159 drugs included.

Among the new inclusions, 89 were added after price talks with drugmakers that led to an average price reduction of 63 percent, and patients are estimated to save over 50 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) throughout the year as a result, according to the administration.

For the past seven years, China has carried out annual adjustments to its national drug reimbursement list, with a focus on including novel and costly medicines for which no generic versions are available.

In past years, deep price cuts negotiated with drugmakers had been widely applauded by the public, while some speculated it might hurt innovative drug development in the long run.

Huang Xinyu, head of the administration's medical services management department, said following the release of the 2025 reimbursement list, the goal is to enable more drugs to be covered by insurance at reasonable prices to contribute to the health and well-being of the public.

"The public paid much attention to the so-called haggling, prices-lashing skills in the past. But recently, it has been much easier for both parties to reach an agreement on a deal and on-site negotiations mainly focus on reasonable discussions of the value of medicines," Huang said.