Caizhi weekly information summary: pharmacies ban dextromethorphan, licensed pharmacists are approaching, and outpatient co-ordination is open for 1 year...
Finishing | Asian chess
01
Hot spot tracking for the week
A large number of pharmacies have banned the sale of dextromethorphan, which has been implemented since July
On May 7, the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration learned that the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Public Security, and the National Health Commission jointly issued the "Announcement on Adjusting the List of Psychotropic Drugs (No. 54 of 2024)".
Among them, it is clear that from July 1 this year, dextromethorphan, diphenoxylate-containing compound preparations, nalfuraphine, and lorcaserin will be included in the list of Class II psychotropic drugs. Some people in the industry believe that after dextromethorphan is included in the list of Class II psychotropic drugs, it may have an impact on the drug market. According to Zhongkang CMH data, the market size of dextromethorphan and generic products in retail pharmacies across the country will be 278 million yuan in 2023, involving multiple pharmaceutical companies and products.
40 billion in 3 months, the "weight loss miracle drug" was targeted
Recently, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk announced its results for the first quarter of 2024, which showed a total revenue of 65.349 billion Danish kroner (about 68 billion yuan) and an operating profit of 31.846 billion Danish kroner (about 33.2 billion yuan). Among them, the three products under the generic name of semaglutide contributed a total of about 6.051 billion US dollars in revenue, more than 40 billion yuan.
Semaglutide, as a treatment drug for adults with type 2 diabetes, is known as the "miracle drug for weight loss" by netizens because of its significant weight loss effect, and its popularity remains high. The person in charge of a pharmacy told "Caizhi of the First Pharmacy" in the exchange that although drugs with approved indications for overweight have appeared on the market one after another, people who are losing weight recognize semaglutide. "The weight loss market is very large, and at present, semaglutide, whether it is an injection or a tablet, is mainly suitable for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in China, and if the weight loss indication is approved, it will usher in a blowout outbreak." However, there are two major problems that cannot be ignored behind its high popularity.
The six major listed chains reported PK in the first quarter of 2024
Recently, the financial reports of the six major private listed chain enterprises in the first quarter of 2024 were released, with weak expectations, many risks and hidden dangers, and continued complexity, severity and uncertainty. In the first quarter of 2024, the revenue of the six major private chains will continue to maintain a growth momentum, with a year-on-year increase, but the overall growth rate is not high. Dashenlin, Yifeng, Laobaimin, Yixintang, Shuyu Civilian, and Jianzhijia achieved operating income of 6.751 billion yuan, 5.97 billion yuan, 5.539 billion yuan, 5.1 billion yuan, 2.439 billion yuan, and 2.314 billion yuan respectively. In terms of net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies, only two companies increased by more than 10%, and one only increased by about 1%.
The selection of "2024 Top 100 Pharmaceutical Retail Enterprises with Comprehensive Competitiveness" was officially launched!
In order to highlight the industry benchmark, present the competitive advantage of leading enterprises, and also attract and gather more high-quality industrial enterprise resources with the help of the industry influence brought by enterprises with outstanding competitiveness. The annual selection of the top 100 pharmaceutical retail enterprises with comprehensive competitiveness was officially launched!
This selection will produce the "Top 100 Pharmaceutical Retail Enterprises with Comprehensive Competitiveness". In addition, taking into account the key competitive factors of pharmaceutical retail enterprises in the next few years, the vane of the pharmaceutical retail industry will be produced-benchmarking enterprises.
02
A week of in-depth interpretation of the industry
The limit for licensed pharmacists to "hang their certificates" is approaching
Although relevant punishment measures have been frequently introduced in recent years, the problem of licensed pharmacists "hanging their licenses" is still common in the pharmacy industry. There are pharmacy operators in the industry who rent out the "Licensed Pharmacist Registration Certificate" by publishing information from time to time.
However, some media sources pointed out that since March this year, the release of "hanging certificates" information has decreased. Market analysts pointed out that with the end of the transition period for the differentiated allocation of licensed pharmacists in 2025, all retail pharmacies will be required to be equipped with a specified number of licensed pharmacists, and it is expected that all regions will continue to strengthen measures for the management of licensed pharmacists. According to the announcement of the special rectification of the "hanging certificate" behavior of licensed pharmacists issued by various places, once the "hanging license" behavior is discovered, it will be seriously investigated and dealt with in accordance with the "Drug Administration Law of the People's Republic of China", "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Drug Operation and Use Quality", "Measures for the Administration of Registration of Licensed Pharmacists" and other laws and regulations. Since the beginning of this year, the momentum of the special campaign to crack down on "hanging certificates" has been strengthened.
One year after the outpatient co-ordination was opened, are pharmacies okay?
Major private listed chains have handed over their 2023 report cards, and have made more diverse explorations in the much-watched outpatient co-ordination and health service extension. Since February 2023, when the National Health Insurance Administration issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Inclusion of Designated Retail Pharmacies in the Coordinated Management of Outpatient Clinics", many regions have issued implementation rules and began to promote the implementation of the outpatient co-ordination policy in pharmacies. According to the comprehensive analysis of Zhongkang Industry Research Institute, as of February 2024, the overall policy of pharmacy outpatient clinics has been implemented in 26 provinces, covering 220 cities, involving 141,400 medical insurance designated pharmacies, accounting for about 30%.
Recently, major listed chains have successively disclosed their 2023 annual reports, which also reveals the differences in the overall policy promotion of pharmacies in various places. Yifeng and the people, who have a wide range of stores across the country, have exceeded 4,000 outpatient designated pharmacies. According to the people's 2023 annual report, as of the first quarter of 2024, the people have 4,673 outpatient co-ordination stores, of which 39.78% are directly operated stores and 30.67% are co-ordinated medical insurance stores that can be prescribed online.
In response to investors' comments on the performance of the first quarter of 2024, Jianzhijia also said that the company's regional outpatient co-ordination policy has not yet broken through the source of prescriptions, the circulation of prescriptions is small, combined with the impact of personal account reform on customer consumption behavior, the company's medical insurance settlement income in the first quarter (mainly medical insurance personal account income) accounted for 42% of the main business income from 48% in the same period last year, and the customer dividend of the outpatient co-ordination policy has not yet been presented.
On the whole, the current outpatient co-ordination policy of pharmacies is insufficient, but the outpatient co-ordination and fixed-point qualification is still attractive to the head chain pharmacies.
National Health Insurance Administration: Support pharmacies to set reasonable prices independently
On May 9, the National Health Insurance Administration issued an announcement that the National Health Insurance Bureau recently held a symposium on pharmaceutical prices in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and Shi Zihai, deputy director, emphasized that it is necessary to conduct in-depth research and improve the drug price formation mechanism and take targeted price policy measures at different stages of the drug life cycle. Give full play to the price discovery function of different channels such as retail pharmacies and online pharmacies, promote the governance of unfair and discriminatory high prices, guide enterprises to set prices independently and reasonably, and promote high-quality innovation and development of the pharmaceutical industry.
Retail is one of the important channels for drug sales terminals in mainland China, and its price policy has been gradually adjusted and optimized in practice. In response to the proposal to support the independent and reasonable pricing of pharmacies, Zhong Chongming, a researcher at the Medical Insurance Payment Research Center of the Medical Consortium of the China Medical and Health Culture Association, believes that for physical pharmacies, it is bad news in the short term and a positive impact in the long term. "The release of a series of signals related to the medical insurance department has fully demonstrated its determination to focus on medical insurance drugs and gradually and orderly control drug prices in pharmacies. At the same time, medical insurance funds will also provide clear and continuous strong support for the pharmacy business. In the view of Cang Chun, a practical expert in the pharmaceutical retail industry, industry is the core of cost control, and "independent and reasonable pricing" not only needs pharmacies, but also needs industry and other parties to make efforts.
03
New report on industry data
National Pharmaceutical Out-of-Hospital Retail Market B2C Report (February)
Affected by the Spring Festival holiday, the performance of the B2C drug market in February 2024 was not as good as that of the same period last year; The growth rate of the B2C market has slowed down, but it still maintains positive growth. Compared with the whole year of 2023, the proportion of prescription drugs will remain stable as of February 2024; From the perspective of growth performance, B2C channel prescription drugs maintained positive growth; Affected by the decline in demand for four types of drugs, the scale of over-the-counter drugs is not as large as that of the same period last year. As of February 2024, the importance of the Tmall platform has increased compared with the same period last year, and the overall sales scale of the platform has maintained double-digit growth; Except for brand stores, JD.com's performance of other store types was not as good as that of the same period, and the overall scale of the platform declined.
Pharmaceutical O2O e-commerce sales in February were nearly 2.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 42%
From January to February 2024, the market size of Zhongkang CMH monitoring O2O drugs will be nearly 2.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42%, of which the scale of direct delivery stores will increase by 63%; In February, O2O direct delivery stores accounted for 4.6% of offline retail pharmacies.
From January to February 2024, the year-on-year growth rate of all prescription drugs was better than that of the whole year of 2023, of which the sales of OTC drugs in the O2O drug market accounted for 53.3%, with a year-on-year growth rate of 46%; Among the OTC drugs, the market performance of the "four types of drugs" is outstanding, and the growth of antibacterial and cold drugs in Rx drugs is relatively fast. From January to February 2024, the growth rate of the market size of gastrointestinal, dermatologic, vitamin mineral, gender drugs and other categories in the O2O drug market is not as fast as that of the overall drug market; Cold medicine led the drug market, with a year-on-year increase of 269%, mainly driven by oseltamivir, cold spirit, compound aminophenamine, etc.
END