China Medical News

China's diabetes patients now have access to high-quality and more affordable insulin products, as the country's drug bulk-buying program for insulin products has led to an average price cut of 48%. The centralized procurement is estimated to save 9 billion yuan (about 1.31 billion U.S. dollars) in diabetes-related health expenditure each year, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA).

The special procurement for insulin products, which was initiated in May 2022, has benefited over 10 million diabetes patients and the number is still rising. The price of insulin glargine, a typical product to treat diabetes, for instance, dropped from 180 yuan to about 70 yuan per unit, saving 4,000 yuan a year for each patient, said an official with the administration.

The scheme marked the first time that biopharmaceuticals were included in the national centralized drug bulk-buying project, a program organized since 2018 to address expensive access to medical treatment of great concern to the people. The procurement for insulin covers the second- and third-generation insulin products commonly used in clinical treatments, and 42 related products have entered the market with a price discount, the NHSA said.

The third-generation insulin products, compared to the second-generation ones, are less likely to cause hypoglycemia under the same blood sugar control. Ji Linong, head of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Peking University People's Hospital, said that the third-generation insulin analogues, which are now widely applied, can simulate the normal insulin secretion of the human body, enabling patients to take injections on a more flexible basis and increasing their treatment compliance. "The procurement program narrows the price gap between the second- and third-generation insulin products, giving patients more options to manage their blood sugar level with safer drugs," Ji added.

In China, the number of diabetes patients aged between 20 and 79 stood at 140 million in 2021, and the figure is expected to reach 164 million by 2030, statistics from the International Diabetes Federation showed. (Source: Xinhua)