Hospitals in the capital, started from Wednesday cutting the prices for antiphologistic drugs to an average of 20 percent lower than before thanks to the newly adopted collective bid purchasing system.
Taking up most part of a patients' bill, the antiphologistic drugs is the first group of medicine in Beijing to get cheaper. Most of them are domestic products and some imported drugs have also seen a slight drop in price.
Officials with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health explained that hospitals in the capital have joined together to sign a purchasing agreement with pharmacy manufacturers involving thousands of varieties of medicine in June.
Patients are estimated to spend 126 million yuan (US$15 million) less for the depreciated drugs worth 1 billion yuan (US$120 million).
(Xinhua News Agency 07/19/2001)
