Drugmakers slash prices to be eligible for China's bulk-buy program

Global pharmaceutical majors and generic drugmakers chopped by 53% on average prices of some of their off-patent products in the latest bidding round under China’s national bulk-buy program, government officials said late on Friday. Beijing has been pushing forward the program where drugmakers have to go through a bidding process and cut prices low enough to be considered over generic copies and be allowed to sell their products at public hospitals via large-volume government procurement. Some global firms such as AstraZeneca and Merck have already cautioned about intensifying price pressures on their mature brands in the world’s second largest drug market, as China expands the usage of the program.