Sihai network

Zero tariff list of imported anticancer drugs

For cancer patients, although the efficacy of imported anti-cancer drugs is very good, but the price is really expensive, for ordinary families, it is really unbearable. Recently, the state announced the latest policy, some anti-cancer drugs to implement zero tariffs, is it very exciting? On April 12, the executive meeting of the State Council decided: from May 1, 2018, the import tariff of all general drugs, including anticancer drugs, alkaloid drugs with anticancer effect and Chinese patent drugs with actual import will be reduced to zero, and the VAT burden in the production and import of anticancer drugs will be greatly reduced.

Tumor is a disease that has not been conquered in the world, and China is the country with the heaviest burden of tumor, with high morbidity and mortality. According to the latest data of the National Cancer Center in 2017: about 10000 people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the country; by the age of 85, one person has a 36% risk of cancer; lung cancer is the first in both morbidity and mortality.

In the global drug market, the scale of tumor drug market has been 'dominant', and it is predicted that this pattern will continue. Nearly half of China's 100 billion tumor drug market relies on imports. According to data statistics, from 2012 to 2016, China's anti-tumor market increased from 60.3 billion yuan to 110.9 billion yuan, with an average compound growth rate of about 16.5%. It is estimated that the market size in 2018 will reach 144.7 billion yuan, and the market space in the next decade will still be large.

In the tumor drug market of our country, most of the drugs with good curative effect are monopolized by the imported pharmaceutical companies, especially the tumor targeting drugs, which are few in China.

Most of the global multinational pharmaceutical enterprises have cancer drug layout in China, such as Roche, Sanofi, Novartis, Pfizer and Lilly, which are the top multinational pharmaceutical enterprises in China's cancer drug market. Most of them have two or more cancer drug layout.

Anti cancer drugs strive to reduce to zero tariff will also have a considerable impact on drug companies, undoubtedly strengthening the competitiveness of domestic anti-cancer drug companies. For multinational pharmaceutical companies in China, although zero tariff may not reduce the price of drugs, it is obvious that it will bring benefits. On the other hand, for domestic pharmaceutical companies, generic pharmaceutical companies will face greater challenges, and innovative pharmaceutical companies will also be impacted. They are looking forward to more supporting policies to encourage innovative drugs in the future.

Incomplete statistics of imported tumor drugs are as follows:

At present, according to the latest tariff rate adjustment of the Ministry of Finance in 2017, the most favored nation tax rate of imported drugs in China is 2% - 4%, while the general tax rate is up to 80%, in addition to the value-added tax of 17%. Therefore, although some cancer drugs enter the national medical insurance catalog or the negotiated drug catalog, the patients in our country are still under great cost pressure.

It can be seen that adjusting the import tax rate of this kind of drugs to 0 is conducive to not only improving the enthusiasm of current import drug companies, but also improving the access of newly approved innovative tumor drugs in the international market to the Chinese market when tumor drugs enter the Chinese market; on the other hand, it is also conducive to reducing the price of imported drugs and reducing the burden of patients.

In 2017, eight of the top 20 tumor drugs in the world have not yet been listed in China. Once zero import tax rate is implemented, it is expected to accelerate the pace of these drugs entering the Chinese market.