Chinese Herbal Medicine Reappears a New Round of Rising Price and Tests the Acceptability of Traditional Chinese Medicine Preparation Enterprises

Business News Agency August 23th It is now a new harvest season for Chinese herbal medicines. At this time in previous years, the price of Chinese herbal medicines will decline. This year's situation is counterproductive: Anguo, Luzhou, Yulin, and Sankeshu. According to the latest market information released by Da Pang City, in the past month or so, the ginseng of Pienzi was the leader. Chinese herbal medicines have seen a large area of ​​price increase, and prices of many varieties have more than doubled. At the same time, downstream manufacturers of traditional Chinese medicine preparations are suffering. On the one hand, the market price of the preparation cannot be linked with the raw materials at present; on the other hand, the preparation companies are not clear about the market trend of Chinese herbal medicines. Buying is full of doubts.

The price increase has hit the drug market

According to the price index of traditional Chinese medicines made by the price of commonly used Chinese herbal medicines by Cangzhou Yaotong.com, the price index has started to rise again after a brief period of April, and has quickly surpassed its previous highs. On August 19, the index has risen to 5346.30 points (only around 3900 points in April). Pharmong.com believes that the reason for the exponential growth is that the recent Taizishen, Qingqiao, Atractylodes, bergamot, alfalfa, oyster shell, medlar and other varieties have increased significantly. Since August, Huanglian, Huangqi, Forsythia, honeysuckle, Panax notoginseng and other medicinal materials The prices have all increased sharply. Among them, the price per kilogram of Taizi ginseng in a month has risen from 70 yuan to 200 yuan per kilogram, and Guangfo hand has risen from 40 yuan to 60 yuan. Overall, the price of Chinese herbal medicines has risen by a large margin, and there are few varieties that fall.

As we all know, since the end of last year, the price of Panax rose sharply from 40 yuan to more than 700 yuan, which triggered widespread concern in the pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, the value and attention of the community to Chinese herbal medicines has risen to a level never seen before.

According to Tan Dong, deputy general manager and sales director of Sichuan Xinhuahua Herbal Pieces Co., Ltd., there are three main reasons for the rise in the price of Chinese herbal medicines: First, due to natural disasters, for example, Panax pseudoginseng is the major producing area of ​​Panax, and this year is the largest The drought resulted in a significant drop in the production of Panax pseudoginsm; secondly, there are fewer and fewer Chinese herbal medicines in the wild, and the labor cost of peasants has increased, which has led to the increase in the prices of artificially grown Chinese herbal medicines; and the third is artificial speculation. Tan Dong believes that with the understanding of the value of Chinese herbal medicine, In particular, there are fewer and fewer resources for wild Chinese herbal medicine. The price increase is inevitable and will continue for a long time. At the same time, human factors will push these factors to the extreme. Cordyceps sinensis soars from several thousand yuan to several hundred thousand yuan, which is the most typical. example of.

Xing Zhenjie, general manager of the Institute of Medicinal Planting and Cultivation Technology in Zhangzhou, said that the current price increase in the drug market in Quzhou is forsythia, which rose from 24 to 25 yuan to 40 yuan, and Taizi ginseng rose from 120 yuan to 220 yuan, and bergamot, Huang Qi, Angelica and so on. "After the media reported on the "Superbug" on August 8, the Forsythia raised its price on the second day. In the later period, Angelica, Codonopsis, and Astragalus may also rise."

As for the reason for the general price increase of Chinese herbal medicines in August, Xing Zhenjie believes that the harvest time of herbs is mostly concentrated in the fall. The annual price fluctuations are before and after the herbal trade fair in September. This year is a full month ahead of schedule. Many companies are hoarding medicinal herbs in advance due to the large amount of raw materials. The shipment has been basically completed, so it is unlikely that medicinal herbs will drop in price. “Now, enterprises have money in their hands, and drug dealers also have money. That is, farmers have 100,000 or 80,000 yuan to fry herbs, and they feel that the market has a lot of money and a lot of hot money.”

Formulation price linkage difficult

On August 19th, our reporter called the Beijing Baita Temple pharmacy. A staff member of the pharmacy stated that due to the increase in prices of Chinese herbal medicines, prices of small varieties of Chinese Herbal Medicine have been raised. The reporter then inquired about some of the stores of Beijing Tong Ren Tang and Beijing Dewei Pharmacy. The prices of Huang Qi, Tai Zi Shen, Atractylodes, and bergamot all rose. According to reports from other media, the wave of price increases for Chinese herbal medicines is spreading throughout the country, and the retail prices of Chinese herbal medicines in Qingdao, Xiamen, and Hebei have all increased.

In the face of rising prices of Chinese herbal medicines, the most unpleasant one may be the Chinese medicine preparation companies. According to the relevant regulations, the medical insurance list and the basic drug list must be subject to the national maximum price limit. The actual situation is that the bid price is far lower than the national maximum price in the bidding and procurement of medicines. Therefore, even if the price of Chinese herbal medicines soars, the price of preparations can only be kept unchanged.

In the first half of this year, due to the dramatic increase in prices of 37, traditional Chinese medicine preparation companies were unable to withstand the pressure. They had reported to the relevant state departments through industry associations and attempted to move out of the predicament through the linkage of raw materials and preparation prices. However, this request was not approved.

Wang Guihua of the Chinese Medicine Association stated that the current trend of drug prices is declining. Even though the increase in prices of Chinese herbal medicines has brought pressure on the operation of Chinese medicine preparation companies, price linkages have not yet been realized. She said that the association has heard the call for a number of Chinese medicine companies to increase their prices. Currently, the Chinese Medicine Association is drafting a document to report to the National Development and Reform Commission on the prices of Chinese medicine raw materials and preparations in order to gain understanding from the management department.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, the increase in raw material prices is not confined to the pharmaceutical industry. The price increase of agricultural and sideline products has become a general trend. At present, the cultivation and harvesting of Chinese herbal medicines still belongs to the category of agricultural and sideline products and has not been included in the chain of the pharmaceutical industry. There is no corresponding supervision of speculation and cultivation of timber.

Senior analyst Jiang Guangze believes that the current Chinese herbal medicines are similar to futures, giving space for hot money speculation. Tan Dong said that Chinese herbal medicines with hype have the following characteristics: First, they are wild and have limited resources; Second, they have a large market demand; Third, they are underestimated in recent years.

It is understood that due to the increase in prices of Chinese herbal medicines, many Chinese manufacturers of traditional Chinese medicines have had a hard time. The foreign propaganda personnel of a large-scale Chinese medicine company in Hebei said that due to the sharp increase in the prices of Chinese herbal medicines, the current operating pressure of enterprises is not small. Although some medicines have not yet risen in price when purchasing, the follow-up raw material procurement is imminent, and the bidding is still ongoing everywhere. Reduce the price of Chinese medicine preparations. Kangyuan Pharmaceutical said that only in the first quarter of this year, the prices of Panax notoginseng and honeysuckle rose to more than tens of millions of yuan in the cost of Kangyuan Pharmaceutical, which accounted for the company’s net profit in the first quarter. One quarter. The recent increase in the price of donkey-hide gelatin, the main raw material of Ejiao, has already begun to make Dong-E E-Jiao no more. The rising prices of white sugar and heterophylla also allowed Jiang to start saving food and clothing costs. In the report of China Resources Sanjiu, the company reported that the prices of some raw materials and accessories of the company rose rapidly, and the overall price of Chinese herbal medicines rose by more than 20%. The increase in cost caused the gross profit margin of OTC and TCM formula granules to decline. Sichuan wolfberry Chinese medicine industry is a large-scale general pharmaceutical leading enterprise. In its product line, Chinese medicine preparation occupies a considerable proportion. An Haoyi, chairman of the company, said that the price of Chinese herbal medicines has risen greatly since the beginning of this year, which brought cost pressures to the company. However, in the short term, the price of Chinese patent medicines is unlikely to increase.

Faced with this situation, most large companies take the hard-line attitude of sacrificing their own interests. Because, as a manufacturer of generic drugs, price increases mean loss of market share. For successful bids in the basic drug bidding, companies are like “Difficulties in dumb swallowing”, such as 37 tablets. The tender price is only 2.2 yuan/bottle. Enterprises have been selling at a loss.

Can the preparation company hold it?

The reporter once asked for 37 prices at a trade fair in Chengdu in July. The price of the business is 300 yuan. Obviously, the national measures to stabilize prices have already worked. On the official website of the National Development and Reform Commission, the reporter saw that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has suppressed the price of Panax pseudoginseng and dispatched special personnel to Guangdong and Yunnan to guide the two provinces in properly handling the unreasonable rise in prices on March and July. The provincial price bureaus invited the major dealers and manufacturers of the 37 companies to talk. However, it turns out that the soaring price of Panax notoginseng is only a prominent case of price increase of Chinese medicinal materials.

According to an industry source, individual Chinese herbal medicines are subject to price increases. Preparation companies are also able to adjust the difference between the ex-factory price and the retail price of other products from my adjustment. However, if the prices of Chinese herbal medicines increase, the profits of enterprises will shrink dramatically. Even operating difficulties, in this case, some companies will be forced to use alternatives, then the efficacy and safety of drugs will be discounted. “It is a test for the wisdom of the current management department and the moral integrity of the pharmaceutical production companies that the people only meet the low drug prices or adhere to the efficacy and quality of drugs.” said the person in the industry.

This worry is not redundant. Xing Zhenjie told reporters that the current sales of fake and inferior Chinese herbal medicines in the herbal medicine market are very rampant. The sharp increase in the price of Chinese herbal medicines this year has provided living space for counterfeit and inferior medicines. Under cost pressures, it is inevitable that regular pharmaceutical manufacturers will take risks. Tan Dong believes that the prices of medicinal herbs in the market may continue to rise or maintain high prices, and there is little possibility of a decline.

Zhang Shichen, vice president of the Chinese Medicine Association, once stated that Chinese herbal medicines have been managed as agricultural and sideline products and are in a state of extensive management. In recent years, Chinese herbal medicines, especially wild resources, have been severely damaged, artificially reducing yields, improperly harvesting and picking, and unscientific processing. A lot of resources have been wasted, and the price and quality of Chinese herbal medicines should be picked up from the source of cultivation.

It is understood that in the face of rising prices of Chinese herbal medicines, many pharmaceutical companies have adopted early purchases and multiple shipments to avoid risks, but this has further boosted prices. An Haoyi told reporters that the company had established a purchasing department for Chinese herbal medicines at the beginning of the year, and was responsible for the analysis and procurement of Chinese herbal medicines. “The market information is very important now. If the information is slow, it cannot be stored, or there is a sudden shortage or increase in the prices of certain medicinal materials, it will choose to sacrifice the benefits to ensure the quality of the products or to stop the production of individual varieties.” Enterprises are adopting cooperation with Chinese herbal medicine growers or self-built medicinal material production bases to ease the pressure on medicinal materials procurement.

So, how long can a formulation company hold up in the face of rising pressure? In the revised drug price management method (draft for solicitation of opinions), the reporter saw that Article 16 has such a provision that “the price control department of the State Council may, according to factors such as the production and operation status of drugs and changes in market supply and demand, Sales profit rate and circulation difference rate (amount) are adjusted, "this three rate" comes from the company's research. “In recent years, raw material prices for medicines have fluctuate greatly and can be linked to the final product price formation. It is hoped that the competent authorities will pay attention to new drug price management,” said a person in charge of a pharmaceutical company.

An Haoyi put forward his own opinions on the current price management of Chinese herbal medicines. He suggested that market supervision should be intensified to regulate the purchase and sale of Chinese herbal medicines, and practitioners should be required to apply for a certification system; in the process of rising prices of Chinese herbal medicines, there is a phenomenon of adulteration and shoddy in the market, and it is hoped that the regulatory authorities will impose severe Combat; further standardize and improve standards, control the quality of Chinese herbal medicines. He said that in the new edition of the Pharmacopoeia compound Danshen tablet standard, although the inspection of the resin channel was increased, only the “resin channel debris containing yellow secretions” was specified in the inspection, and no specific regulations were provided for the secretion. If this provision is added, the quality of medicines can be further guaranteed.