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Drug prices soar in free market

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-27 14:36

A 15.5-yuan cancer drug sells for 213 yuan in a hospital, but the 1,300-percent profit for that drug isn't the highest profit for cancer drugs; Ondansetron, another therapy for cancer, sells at a 2,000-percent profit, according to CCTV reports on Wednesday.

With the National Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) campaign to curb the high price of drugs, special commentator Wang Xixin said that the policies made to curb soaring drug prices have little effects, because the government price makers know little about the real costs of medicines.

"To some extent, the soaring medicine price is because it's being guided by government," Wang said.

Two factors that cause drug prices to soar, Wang said, were the free market procedures of three layers -- medicine factories, drug representatives, and hospital doctors; and the other was government guided-price makers who know little about the costs of the drugs.