Analysis of the shortage of drugs in national centralized volume-based procurement and countermeasures and suggestions / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE To analyze the situation and causes of the shortage of drugs in centralized volume-based procurement， and to put forward countermeasures and suggestions for optimizing centralized procurement rules and improving the drug shortage supply guarantee system. METHODS The shortage data of the first five batches of centralized purchasing drugs during January 2019 and December 2021 were collected from the Shortage Database of Chinese medicine economic information； descriptive statistical analysis was performed for shortage frequency， varieties and reasons. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS After the first five batches of centralized volumetric procurement policy landed， the frequency of drug shortage reported for selected specifications and selected enterprises increased significantly， mainly drug shortage of selected enterprises. The shortage of some varieties from selected enterprises in the short term was obvious， and most of them were commonly used clinical drugs. The occurrence of drug shortages was affected by various links such as the production， circulation and use， and the main reasons were shortage or monopoly of raw materials. In order to ensure the drugs supply， the government should scientifically assess the risk of production interruption of enterprises， further optimize centralized procurement rules， improve the reporting system for drug shortages， and attach importance to the supply of key drugs； in addition， hospitals should take a variety of measures within the scopes of policies to flexibly respond to drug shortages so as to avoid delaying the treatment of patients.