Recently, the Hebei Provincial Medical Device Centralized Procurement Center announced the procurement results for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.The results of the centralized procurement of chemical pharmaceuticals in Jiangxi Province show that 80 varieties and 128 specifications were selected, covering multiple therapeutic areas such as digestive tract, anti-tumor, nervous system, and cardiovascular diseases. These are all "big-ticket" drugs commonly used in clinical practice and with large market scale. This centralized procurement followed the logic of "two-tier" competition, setting price gradient requirements between different tiers to guide the market to make rational bids while ensuring quality. Looking at the selected prices, the overall price reduction is narrower than in previous centralized procurements, with many drugs seeing price reductions controlled within 30%.

Under the guiding principle of "anti-involution" in national centralized procurement, the industry generally believes that the highlight of Hebei's centralized procurement this time is that it guides the industry towards a healthy development track through rule design. It marks the mature evolution of drug centralized procurement towards a comprehensive evaluation stage that integrates quality, price, and supply guarantee. Pharmaceutical companies are also expected to truly achieve the goal of "price-volume balance" through centralized procurement.

Centralized procurement "anti-involution," rule optimization guides value return.
Since last year, the national centralized procurement has clarified the principles of "stabilizing clinical use, ensuring quality, preventing bid rigging, and combating internal competition," guiding companies to return to rational pricing. As an important local alliance centralized procurement, the rules of this Beijing- Tianjin -Hebei-Jiangxi centralized procurement are characterized by "quality stratification, price constraints, and orderly competition," and the winning results are no longer solely based on the lowest price. Examples include Shanghai Xudong Haipu's thiotepa injection, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical's tamoxifen citrate tablets, and Kangzhi Pharmaceutical's...Levocetirizine hydrochloride granules, calcium polystyrene sulfonate powder from Qingdao Guohai Biopharmaceutical, and emesitin fumarate sustained-release capsules from Sichuan Defeng Pharmaceutical all saw price reductions of 20%-23% compared to their listed prices. Several other drugs, such as clarithromycin sustained-release tablets from Hainan Puli Pharmaceutical, saw price reductions of less than 20%, which is lower than the average price reduction of 48%-60% in previous national procurement.

Industry analysts point out that this rule optimization not only ensures the accurate matching of clinical drug needs of medical institutions, but also marks the deepening implementation of the national centralized procurement policy's "anti-involution" spirit at the local level, which will further guide the pharmaceutical market competition back to the essence of "quality + cost-effectiveness".

The high incidence of allergic diseases is driving up the demand for antihistamines.
This cross-provincial centralized procurement, spearheaded by Hebei Province, primarily targets clinically common drugs with significant potential market size. For example, Kangzhi Pharmaceutical's winning bid for levocetirizine hydrochloride granules (Kangzhitai®), a proprietary formulation, is a commonly used drug for treating allergic diseases and upper respiratory tract infections with catarrhal symptoms. This successful bid will lay the foundation for Kangzhi Pharmaceutical's next step in developing blockbuster chemical drugs.

Allergic diseases have been listed as the sixth leading chronic disease worldwide. The World Allergy Organization's 2011 Allergy White Paper pointed out that allergic diseases affect 20%-30% of the global population, with 10%-30% of adults and up to 40% of children suffering from allergic rhinitis, indicating a huge demand for the treatment of allergic diseases.

Antihistamines are first-line treatments for allergic diseases. Pharmaceutical companies have continuously innovated to improve safety and efficacy, leading to third-generation antihistamines such as levocetirizine and desloratadine, whose incidence of drowsiness-related adverse reactions has significantly decreased. Data from the National Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring System of the National Medical Products Administration shows that between 2021 and 2023, the incidence of adverse reactions to levocetirizine granules was 1.05 per 100,000, and all were mild and transient.

In the area of pediatric medications where reliability and safety are paramount, third-generation antihistamines are generally more widely recognized in the industry. Zeng Fansen, Director and Chief Physician of the Infectious Diseases Department at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, stated that for pediatric medications, while efficacy is important, drug safety must be given extra attention. Among third-generation antihistamines, levocetirizine hydrochloride is not metabolized by the liver and has fewer drug interactions, resulting in relatively better safety. Based on its favorable pharmacological properties and safety profile, this drug is currently widely used in the treatment of allergic diseases in children, including allergic rhinitis and chronic urticaria.

International consulting firm Frost & Sullivan predicts that the global anti-allergy drug market will reach $63 billion (approximately RMB 459.8 billion) in 2024, with the Chinese market accounting for approximately $8.2 billion (approximately RMB 59.8 billion). HeadLeopard Research Institute estimates that the domestic allergy disease industry market size will increase to RMB 77.87 billion by 2028. Market research data shows that antihistamines, as a core category for the treatment of allergic diseases, occupy a large market share, with third-generation products seeing a gradual increase in penetration due to improved safety.

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