China has expanded a pilot drug bulk-buying programme to almost the entire country in an attempt to negotiate lower prices from drug manufacturers, heaping fresh pressure on multinational pharmaceutical companies and their domestic rivals. The programme rolled out last year saw 11 Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, band together behind a tender process to bulk-buy 25 types of drugs. The drugs on the list include off-patent blockbusters that are made by Western pharmaceutical giants, but which have generics made by local players, such as Eli Lilly’s cancer treatment drug Pemetrexed, which is sold under the brand name Alimta, and leukaemia therapy Imatinib sold by Novartis as Gleevec.

source https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-expands-drug-bulk-buy-085638251.html?.tsrc=rss