Study finds generic drugs included in bulk-buying initiative effective and safe

A recent study led by the National Healthcare Security Administration found that generic drugs included in the second and third rounds of China's centralized drug procurement program were as effective and safe as their branded counterparts.

China launched the first round of the bulk-buying initiative in 2018 and has now rolled out seven subsequent ones. Designed to reduce the cost of expensive drugs and alleviate the financial pressure on patients, the bulk purchases have covered 333 types of medicines.

The majority of the drugs are generic versions of name-brand products, and that led to some concerns about their efficacy and safety among some patients and medical workers.

To dispel such concerns, the administration rolled out a study in 2019 to measure the efficacy and safety of 14 types of drugs selected during the first round of the procurement program. That study found the generic medicines were as effective and safe as their name-brand counterparts.

Zhang Lan, director of the pharmacology department at Capital Medical University's Xuanwu Hospital, told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that a second evaluation study initiated in June 2021 — which covered the second and third rounds of the program — had looked into 23 types of medicines used to fight infection and treat cancers and metabolic, endocrinological, mental health, cardiovascular and digestive conditions.

"Overall, we have reached the conclusion that these drugs' efficacy and safety parallel those of branded drugs," she said.

Zhang added that treatment outcomes varied between patients and it was possible that a certain ratio of patients would find a particular drug less effective than expected.

"It is unreasonable to jump to the conclusion that generic drugs are inferior to their branded counterparts based on a few sporadic cases," she said. "Only through studies of a large population can we arrive at a scientific conclusion."