Study on the Price and Affordability of Rare Disease Drug s in Chin a / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE：To evaluate the price and affordability of rare disease drugs in China and provide the suggestions for the improvement of rare disease drug affordability in order to provide reference for the relevant decision-making of government departments. METHODS ：According to the List of the First Batch of Rare Diseasesand Diagnosis and Treatment Guideline for Rare Diseases（2019 edition），rare disease drugs were selected. The median price ratio （MPR）was used to evaluate the drug price level ， and the ratio of the annual drug costs to the annual disposable income of urban or rural residents was used to evaluate the affordability，and the impact of price management policieson drug prices and affordability. RESULTS and CONCLUSIONS ：A total of 71 kinds of rare disease drugs were included ，and the median MPR of them was 0.83；among them ，the median MPR of the original drugs was 1.13，and the median MPR of the generic drugs was 0.37. The annual cost of 71 rare disease drugs was 0.001-178.43 times the average annual income of urban residents ，and 0.003-456.57 times the average annual income of rural residents. There were 21 and 28 drugs whose annual cost exceeded the annual income of urban and rural residents.After the implementation of national medical insurance negotiation or volume based procurement of 14 drugs，the median MPR of these drugs decreased from 1.71 to 0.46. For urban residents ，the number of unaffordable drugs had been reduced from 8 to 0；for rural residents，it had been reduced from 10 to 5. In summary ，the price level of orphan drugs in China was slightly lower than international reference price ，but the price level of original drugs was higher than the international reference price ，and the cost of some drugs far exceeded the residents ’ability to pay. It is suggested that the government should strengthen the price management of original drugs ，promote the substitution of high-quality generic drugs for original drugs ，and improve the payment system for high-value rare disease drugs.