Pharma firms obliged to make medicines even if unprofitable

AFTER MEDIA REPORTS about a shortage, even in some big hospitals, of mercapatopurinem, a medication used to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, particularly children with leukemia, Premier Li Keqiang has urged domestic pharmaceutical companies to increase their output as soon as possible. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The rising prices of the raw materials used to make the medication have seriously squeezed the profit margin for those companies producing the tablets, as a result, many pharmaceutical companies suspended production.

Although there is a strong demand in the market - even the expensive imported medicine is in short supply through official channels now - the price of the tablets, which is in the catalogue of the medicines covered by public medical insurance fund, was fixed in the latest medicine price negotiation between the government and the pharmaceutical companies. This means the pharmaceutical companies no longer find it profitable enough to produce the tablets.