Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Improving the Drug Price Formation Mechanism" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), emphasizing the need to improve the market-oriented drug price formation mechanism, support the high-quality development of the pharmaceutical industry, and ensure that the people have access to high-quality and affordable drugs. On April 15th, the State Council Information Office held a regular policy briefing to introduce relevant information. The Opinion on Supporting Innovative Drugs with Real Money and Silver adheres to the principle of combining an effective market with a proactive government, and proposes a series of reform measures from the perspectives of the whole cycle, all channels, and all fields. Shi Zihai, Deputy Director of the National Medical Insurance Administration, introduced that the so-called full cycle refers to the improvement of drug pricing policies based on different stages after the drug is launched. For newly launched drugs, a drug initial release pricing mechanism is introduced, and policy support and guidance are provided based on the self-evaluation results of the company's clinical value and innovation level, distinguishing high-level innovative drugs, improved new drugs, generic drugs, and other situations. Encouraging the development of innovative drugs is an important measure to improve the quality of clinical medication and enhance the health and well-being of the people. The Opinion emphasizes the centralized and quantity based procurement of drugs with diverse supply and many years of market experience, and specifically clarifies that centralized procurement does not involve innovative drugs. Wang Xiaoning, Director of the Pharmaceutical Price and Tendering Procurement Department of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, introduced that the National Medical Insurance Bureau has conducted negotiations on the medical insurance catalog for 8 consecutive years, and has included 199 innovative drugs in the scope of medical insurance reimbursement. The strategic purchase of medical insurance funds has played a key role in promoting the development of innovative drugs. As of February 2026, the medical insurance fund has accumulated a total of 504.8 billion yuan in negotiated drug expenditures during the agreement period, driving sales of 740 billion yuan and benefiting 1.17 billion people. At the same time, the medical insurance department is promoting the accelerated implementation of innovative drug catalogs for commercial health insurance, introducing diversified payment mechanisms, and pushing the pharmaceutical industry onto a path of heavy innovation and strong research and development. In the future, when buying medicine, one can compare prices from three different sources. Currently, the price difference of the same drug between public hospitals, physical pharmacies, and online pharmacies has attracted much attention. Wang Xiaoning introduced that public hospitals, as the main channel for drug sales, purchase through provincial pharmaceutical procurement platforms and implement zero margin sales except for traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces; The drug prices of physical pharmacies and online pharmacies are determined by the operators' independent pricing and market competition. Due to differences in business models, procurement channels, and supply chain efficiency, there may be fluctuations and differences in drug prices across different channels. This is a normal phenomenon, but the gap should not be too large and should be controlled within a reasonable range. This is an important focus of price governance. Currently, constrained by competitive pressure and governance rules, drug prices across different channels are gradually converging and becoming more reasonable. The Opinion proposes to give full play to the professional role of medical institutions, guide pharmacies to set reasonable retail prices for drugs, and make good use of the price discovery function of online pharmacies. Essentially, it encourages various entities to participate in the formation of drug prices. ”Wang Xiaoning said that for example, when provincial pharmaceutical procurement platforms carry out price governance, they use the prices of designated pharmacies and online pharmacies as anchor points to urge enterprises to adjust the high online prices; Through the medical insurance designated agreement, it is required that the drug prices of designated pharmacies shall not be significantly higher than those of other channels or implement "yin-yang pricing". It is reported that each province has launched a designated pharmacy public price comparison mini program, achieving full coverage monitoring of prices in physical pharmacies. We are actively promoting more open and transparent pricing information for the same drug across different channels, guiding fair and reasonable pricing across different channels, and achieving 'comparing prices from three different sources', making it more convenient and reassuring for the people to buy drugs, "said Wang Xiaoning. The Opinion on Ensuring Supply and Stable Prices of Drugs in Key Areas standardizes the pricing, supply, and payment of drugs in key areas, making medication more accessible to the public and at a more reasonable price level. ”Shi Zihai introduced that for the shortage of drugs, we focus on ensuring supply and stabilizing prices, and optimize the rules for directly listing the shortage of drugs on the internet; Implement government guided prices for narcotic drugs and Class I psychotropic drugs in accordance with the law; For pharmaceutical raw materials, the main measures are to prevent the monopoly of raw materials and the disorderly price increase of auxiliary materials and packaging materials, strengthen the guidance of Chinese herbal medicine prices, and promote the high-quality and high price of Chinese herbal medicine on the basis of improving quality evaluation. The shortage of drugs once attracted social attention. Gong Xiangguang, Director of the Drug Policy and Essential Medicines System Department of the National Health Commission, introduced that the country has fully utilized the role of the consultation and linkage mechanism for ensuring the supply of scarce drugs, and established a "four level response" system at the national, provincial, municipal, and county levels. Data from the past three years shows that the response rate at the local level has remained above 96%; The number of varieties that need to be dealt with at the national level has decreased from 64 in 2021 to 2 in 2025, and the shortage of drugs has significantly improved. Shi Zihai introduced that the "Opinions" proposed a package of reform measures in guiding the rational formation of drug prices, regulating price order, and collaborative governance to prevent price chaos. For example, the Opinion proposes "implementing intelligent monitoring of drug prices" and "implementing drug price risk warning", labeling drugs with significantly high prices on provincial pharmaceutical procurement platforms with "red and yellow labels", thereby breaking the information gap between different enterprise prices, guiding medical institutions to purchase high-quality and affordable drugs, and guiding enterprises to set reasonable prices. The proposal of these new measures ultimately aims to promote stable market operation, maintain good price order, and ensure the safety of medication for the public, "said Shi Zihai. (New Society)