Huge Price Gap Stirs up Medicine Market

Drugs produced by domestic firms and joint ventures (JVs) are sold at different prices, sometimes with a gap as high as 87 times, according to today's Market News.

Yifeng Super Drugstore, one of China's top 50 drugstores, issued a price comparison between domestic and JV firms to customers two days ago, and the figures revealed price in JV stores ranging from twice to as much as 87 times those of domestic ones.

For instance, a package of 12.5-mg Capoten produced by Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Ltd is sold at 148 yuan, but Changzhou Pharmaceutical Factory Capoten sells it for only 3.4 yuan.

A 10-mg package of Hismanal produced by Xi'an-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd sells for 17.5 yuan, but the same package produced by Henan Topfond Pharmaceutical Co Ltd sells for 13.8 yuan.
Normally, prices of JV producers including Xi'an-Janssen, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bayer are much higher than those of domestic firms on like medications, said a principal in Yifeng.

Medicine prices are higher when produced by foreign-funded firms, even if their dosage is less than domestic medicines, said insiders.

Consumers who lack professional medical knowledge are more likely to buy JV medicines.

A middle-aged woman said the doctor suggested Losec as the best choice for curing stomachache. However, the price of Losec is high at more than 140 yuan, while one domestic medicine with the same ingredients is only 7.6 yuan.

"I would not have bought the pricier medicine if I had known about the domestic one earlier," said she. Zhou Aiming, who is responsible for Yifeng merchant department, said consumers do not know there are lot of domestic medicines can that replace JV ones, especially on some professional medications.

Procardin, a medicine for high blood pressure produced by Bayer, sold 533 packages per month, while only 26 packages of a comparable domestic medicine were sold.

Meanwhile, Zhou suggests drugstores should set up an industry alliance to change the situation.