(Yicai) Aug. 31 -- A centralized drug procurement tender held by 15 of China's 31 provincial-level regions chose 49 drug varieties as candidate winners.

The lowest price was for a bidder's paracetamol tablets, commonly used as an antipyretic and analgesic medication, at CNY1.45 (20 US cents) for 30 half-gram pills, or less than 5 Chinese cents (below 1 US cents) per tablet, according to the results released yesterday. 

The tender was organized by an alliance of 15 provincial-level regions, including Beijing and Fujian, and run by the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Centralized Bidding and Purchasing Management Office. Procurement of the selected drugs will run from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, 2025.

Many of the drugs, including ambroxol hydrochloride, paracetamol, and glimepiride tablets, became candidate winners with prices below CNY2, with several others even priced at less than 10 Chinese cents per tablet.

Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group's emtricitabine and tenofovir tablets, used to cure human immunodeficiency virus type 1, had the highest single-pack price with a bottle of 30 pills costing CNY666 (USD92).

Before the latest centralized procurement, China had organized eight rounds of centralized drug procurements, selecting 333 drug types, with average prices down more than 50 percent. Heart stents, artificial joints, and six other high-value medical consumables saw costs down over 80 percent. 

The fourth centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables will start this year, according to the National Health Security Administration. It will focus on artificial lenses for ophthalmology and sports medicine consumables for orthopedics, the agency said.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Martin Kadiev