Recently, the National Healthcare Security Administration ("NHSA") has drafted and issued the 2019 Work Plan for Adjustments to the National Catalog of Drugs Covered by the Medical Insurance (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to solicit public opinions by March 26, 2019.
The Draft for Comment states that, the coverage of this catalog will be expanded appropriately according to the payment capacity of the medical insurance funds, in a bid to achieve a further optimized structure of drugs, more standardized management and a more efficient use of the medical insurance funds, increase benefits brought by the essential drugs covered by the medical insurance and mitigate the difficulty in drug availability and the high prices of drugs. In addition, the Draft for Comment explicitly states that adjustments to the catalog of drugs, specifically including the addition of some drugs and the removal of others, are mainly made to western drugs, Chinese patent drugs, and Chinese herbal pieces. These adjustments will be made based on the information about drugs marketed upon approval of the National Medical Products Administration ("NMPA"), and applications filed or recommendations made by enterprises will be dismissed, and no review fees or any other fees will be charged. Western drugs and Chinese patent drugs to be included into the said catalog should be drugs registered with the NMPA and marketed on or before December 31, 2018. Besides, the national essential drugs, drugs used to cure serious diseases like cancers and rare diseases, and drugs for chronic diseases, will be given priority.