Fourth National Centralized Procurement of Traditional Chinese Patent Medicines Opens Bidding: 310 Products Selected

Fourth National TCM Centralized Procurement Opens Bidding in Wuhan, Covering 89 Commonly Used Clinical Drugs

On April 30, the fourth national alliance-based centralized procurement of traditional Chinese patent medicines officially opened bidding in Wuhan, Hubei Province, producing preliminary selection results. With broad coverage and high participation, this round represents another important milestone in the routine operation of the volume-based centralized procurement system for traditional Chinese patent medicines.

Key Figures at a Glance

This round of procurement covered 28 procurement groups and 89 drug varieties, with over 40,000 medical and pharmaceutical institutions nationwide submitting volume commitments, fully demonstrating widespread support from healthcare providers for TCM centralized procurement. During the bidding phase, 468 products from 344 companies met the bidding requirements, and ultimately 310 products from 243 companies were successfully selected.

Overall, this round of procurement exhibited three major characteristics:

• Enthusiastic corporate participation: The number of bidding companies and products remained high, reflecting the TCM industry's active response to procurement policies.
• Comprehensive dosage forms and specifications: Selected products covered a wide range of dosage forms and specifications, effectively meeting medication needs across different clinical scenarios.
• Mainstream products widely selected: Most mainstream TCM products currently in clinical use were included, ensuring continuity and accessibility of clinical medication.

Steady Progress Toward Routine TCM Centralized Procurement

Looking back over recent years, TCM centralized procurement has evolved from pilot exploration to nationwide rollout, transitioning from an initial "ice-breaking" phase to routine implementation. Unlike centralized procurement of chemical drugs, TCM faces greater challenges in rule design due to issues such as the prevalence of exclusive varieties and inconsistent quality evaluation standards.

From the first to the fourth batch, the number of drug varieties and the scope of participating institutions in alliance-based procurement have continued to expand, with rules being continuously refined and improved. The large-scale inclusion of 89 drug varieties in this round signals that TCM centralized procurement has entered "deep waters," with coverage gradually extending from common disease medications to broader therapeutic areas.

Far-Reaching Industry Impact

The routine implementation of TCM centralized procurement will have profound implications across the entire traditional Chinese medicine industry chain:

1. Pricing: Price reductions driven by centralized procurement will help ease patients' medication costs and improve the accessibility of traditional Chinese patent medicines.
2. Companies: Selected companies will secure stable market share, with the "volume-for-price" approach facilitating economies of scale and cost reduction. Companies that are not selected will face pressure from shrinking market share, accelerating industry consolidation.
3. Innovation: In the long run, centralized procurement will encourage TCM companies to increase R&D investment, shifting from a "marketing-heavy" to a "research-heavy" approach and promoting high-quality development of the TCM industry.

Outlook

As the fourth batch of TCM centralized procurement is implemented, more patients are expected to benefit from more reasonably priced commonly used clinical TCM products. In the future, TCM centralized procurement is expected to further expand in scope and improve in quality, with continuous optimization in variety selection, quality evaluation, and supply assurance, contributing greater momentum to the "Healthy China" strategy. Meanwhile, as artificial intelligence and big data technologies are increasingly applied in drug screening, demand forecasting, and supply chain management, the precision and intelligence of pharmaceutical centralized procurement will continue to advance.