Chinese official a ‘hero’ after forcing US drug maker Biogen to cut cost of treatment for spinal disease with ‘gentle but firm’ approach
- US pharmaceutical company reduces the price of a drug for a rare spinal disease after seven rounds of negotiations with China’s medical insurance authority
- Chinese official who led negotiations has been hailed as a public hero in China
A Chinese official has been publicly celebrated after forcing a pharmaceutical company to dramatically cut the price of a drug for a rare disease by using a “gentle but firm” approach.
Currently, the drug Nusinersen, used to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), is sold at the exorbitant price of 700,000 yuan (US$110,000) for a 5-ml bottle. The original proposed price reduction was to bring it down to 53,680 yuan (US$8,423). But it was then reduced to 33,000 yuan (US$5,178) after seven rounds of negotiations between representatives from China’s National Healthcare Security Administration and the American drug producer Biogen, according to video clips of the negotiations released last week.
One of the leading inherited diseases behind the death of young children, SMA is a genetic condition that makes the muscles weaker and causes problems with movement.
There are about 1,200 newborn babies affected by the illness in China each year, with a total of 30,000 patients living with the condition across the country, news portal kankanews.com reports.
If the price reduction deal is approved, the drug will be included in the public medical insurance scheme, meaning that the financial burden for families of sufferers of SMA will be significantly reduced.
Video footage of the negotiations has been viewed about 200 million times on Weibo. Internet users have heaped praise on lead negotiator Zhang Jinni, representative of the medical insurance authority. Many people said her efforts during the talks showed her love for the families of SMA patients.
Zhang told the drug company representatives that China’s medical insurance fund is strained, partly due to less money being collected from employees and enterprises as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Some of her statements have gone viral, such as: “The talk is hard for me. Just now I was about to burst into tears,” Zhang said at one point during the negotiations.
The company representatives responded by saying: “We too are also about to burst into tears”
Other interesting statements from Zhang include: “each small group of people should not be given up”, and: “our target is the same and we hope there are no tricks in the negotiation”. Others include: “this price is really difficult for us and I hope you can work hard to reduce it”, and: “you should work harder to lower the price’.
Many were quick to praise the result online. “Thank the state team! For every penny cut in the bargain, it will be saved for the public,” wrote one person on Weibo.
But some people thought differently. “I am concerned whether pharmaceutical companies will lose their motivation to develop new drugs,” said another user.