Urgent need to remove administrative power abuse in medicines bidding

In China’s essential medicines bidding system, which is widely adopted for the country’s medical procurement, there are occurrences of anti-competitive administrative power abuse, which means that the bidding policies and evaluation criteria formulated by provincial authorities contain biased protection for local pharmaceutical companies, and then restrict or eliminate the fair competition rights of their counterparts from other provinces.

Q: Compared to other acts of unfair competition in the medical field, what are the characteristics of anti-competitive administrative power abuse in the bidding process for essential medicines?

A: It is principally manifested in three ways:

1. The implementing entities of this act of unfair competition are not business operators involved directly in market competition, but authorities in charge of essential medicines bidding, with a superior legal position to pharmaceutical companies harmed by administrative power abuse;
2. The acts of unfair competition are by their nature the administrative acts of relevant authorities, and are imposed upon the pharmaceutical companies participating in essential medicines bidding;
3. A pharmaceutical company harmed by anti-competitive administrative power abuse in essential medicines bidding is entitled to institute an administrative action.