The National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance recently issued a document jointly promoting the inclusion of drugs whose prices have been negotiated nationally in the catalogue for the new rural cooperative medical insurance system.

The document instructs all local authorities to incorporate these medicines into the new rural cooperative medical insurance catalogue before the end of October.

On May 20, the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued the first batch of medicines with nationally negotiated prices, which were mainly expensive medicines needed to treat serious diseases, including hepatitis B and cancer. These medicines now cost half what they did before the national price negotiations.

It is an international practice for nations to negotiate the prices of medicines to target expensive patented medicines and those produced exclusively by some pharmaceutical companies. A government negotiates with pharmaceutical companies seeking a lower price for life-saving and other critical medicines so that a larger number of people can afford to buy them for medical treatment.

This is win-win for pharmaceutical companies, patients and governments, and it can help deepen healthcare reform, reduce patients' economic burden and expand the markets for pharmaceutical companies.

China's pilot negotiation program for medicine prices started in October 2015. But media reports say only 19 of the mainland's 31 provinces and regions have negotiated medicine prices with producers so far to include them in the local medical insurance system.