The 2024 National Medical Insurance Negotiations entered the second day. Beijing was sunny. On this day, antidiabetic and tumor drugs were the highlights. On the second day of the National Negotiations, Huang Bin, Vice President of AstraZeneca China, and Xia Yu, founder, chairman, president and CEO of Kangfang Bio, appeared at the National Negotiations. On the morning of October 28, the companies participating in the negotiations included AstraZeneca, Hengrui, Xinlitai, Hisun, CSPC Pharmaceutical, etc.; in the afternoon, Zhejiang Jingxin Pharmaceutical, Union Qilin, Beijing Novartis, Luye Pharmaceutical, Jiangsu Hausen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Qilu, Changchun Jinsai, Zejing Bio, Hengrui, Novo Nordisk, etc. were present.

Some on-site observers said that anti-tumor, antidiabetic and other chronic disease drugs were the protagonists of the second day of the National Negotiations. The National Medical Insurance Administration has carried out adjustments to the medical insurance drug list for six consecutive years, adding a total of 744 drugs to the list, of which 446 were added through negotiations - 100 tumor drugs, and 93 drugs for chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and mental illness.

On the second day of the national negotiations, the first to enter the market were Xinlitai's Folagliptin Benzoate Tablets, Haisike's Colagliptin Tablets, Jiangsu Hengrui's Proline Plus Agliflozin Tablets, Hengagliflozin Metformin Sustained Release Tablets (I)/Hengagliflozin Metformin Sustained Release Tablets (II), and Wuhan Jiuan Pharmaceutical Research Institute's Metformin Hydrochloride Sustained Release Tablets (IV), according to Cailianshe on-site news. At around 9:29, a pharmaceutical company representative outside the venue urgently handed a calculator to his colleagues participating in the national negotiations inside the venue, and the price tug-of-war on the negotiation table was evident.

Although the 2024 national negotiations had been "pre-negotiated" from October 16 to 18, also at the National People's Congress Conference Center, the price was still the key to attracting attention. "It's not very nervous. During the pre-negotiation, we already knew roughly what the negotiation 'routines' were. It mainly depends on the price of the reference product." A diabetes drug-related company said; another monoclonal antibody drug-related negotiation company said that even if the indications are different, the price comparison of similar monoclonal antibody drugs cannot be avoided during the negotiation. In addition, compared with the first day of the national negotiations, the overall negotiation time of pharmaceutical companies this morning was longer. Until 12:56, the group of people participating in the national negotiations led by Xia Yu, founder, chairman, president and CEO of Kangfang Bio, walked out of the National People's Congress Conference Center and hurriedly got on the car and left.

The products involved in Kangfang Bio's current round of medical insurance catalog adjustments may be ivocizumab (indication non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer) and cardunilimab (indication cervical cancer). Previously, Kangfang Bio lowered the price of its dual-antibody new drug cardunil - the unit price dropped from 13,220 yuan/125mg/bottle to 6,166 yuan/125mg/bottle, a decrease of 53.4%. The determination to enter the medical insurance is imminent.

At around 1:19 p.m., Huang Bin, vice president of AstraZeneca China, who has led teams to participate in national negotiations many times, walked out of the National People's Congress Conference Center, shook hands with relevant pharmaceutical company personnel, and left directly by car. AstraZeneca's drugs participating in the national negotiations this time include trastuzumab for injection (indications HER2-positive breast cancer; HER2-low-expressing breast cancer) and budegol inhalation aerosol (new indication maintenance treatment for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)).

Trastuzumab is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting HER2. So far, four indications have been launched in China, namely HER2-positive adult breast cancer, HER2-low-expressing adult breast cancer, HER2-positive adult gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, and non-small cell lung cancer. In order to get their own drugs into the national insurance catalog as much as possible, some companies will bring their own drugs to the negotiation/bidding site to demonstrate their innovative technologies. However, industry insiders revealed that experts pay more attention to clinical efficacy during the negotiation process.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, after the relevant staff of the National Health Insurance Administration called the roll and checked the ID cards at the entrance of the National People's Congress Conference Center, representatives of pharmaceutical companies entered the venue one after another. As in previous years, there were generally three representatives of pharmaceutical companies entering the venue. "Red" is still the color of choice for many pharmaceutical companies to wear during the national talks. "Red skirt" and "red bag" indicate a good start, and also reflect the expectations of pharmaceutical companies for entering the medical insurance.

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