This article is from WeChat public account: Arterial Network(ID:vcbeat), author: Fan Xin, title figure from the visual China
Life is money.
In the 19th minute of the movie “I am not a drug god”, the moment “Xu Yong” played by Xu Wei is more than the moment when he utters the line, the art success reflects the paradox and reality of an industry.
On the one hand, the essential needs of human life and health, which is listed as the lowest and most basic needs in the American psychologist Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; but on the other hand, the company is in the business process because of new drugs. The huge cost of research and development, etc., allows drugs or medical devices to recover costs and achieve profitability at a high price.
This pain point, which has been deeply rooted in the medical and health field for many years, has been under siege by “innovation payments” in recent years. From the big disease fundraising, the million medical insurance to the network mutual assistance, and the drug staging, various new models emerge one after another. The innovation in the industrial chain also involves the “medical, pharmaceutical, insurance, and health” links from “medical”.
This article is going to detail the drug staging business. As a new model of innovative payment that grows in the “medical + financial” combination zone, what problems can the drug staging solve? What impact will the business have on the financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, patients and other related parties involved? What is the market status and market prospects of drug staging?
We interviewed a number of industry insiders and tried to answer these questions.
The patient’s gospel, demand for drugs for severe illness and special illnesses is large
In the past year or two, in the online community where some patients gathered, there has been a discussion about “pharmaceutical staging.”
In the “rare disease” of Baidu Post Bar, there is a post about “the drug Norothine Injection for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy”. One user commented that “Norschinasheng injection has a new record of 700,000 yuan per drug. It has set a new record for the price of Chinese medicines… Could it let the family members carry nearly a million cash to the pharmacy to buy medicine? It is so expensive. Rare medicines should be able to make innovative payments (such as drug staging)…and have you done it?”
This user’s comment reflects a problem, that is, for many high-priced drugs, the demand for drug staging does exist, especially when it comes to severe illnesses and rare diseases. This demand will be even stronger. The film “I am not a drug god” disclosed in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia Gleevec nearly 40,000 yuan a bottle, in fact, is only the tip of the iceberg for the treatment of some high-risk drugs and rare diseases.
In the domestic medical environment, the mostOne of the big pain points is that the patient’s self-pay ratio is too high, and the lack of supplementary payment means that the patient does not get financial security and support during treatment. Although the medical situation is getting better in the context of the rapid growth of the domestic medical market, the pressure on patients is increasing, and the proportion of self-pay is high, accounting for 40%.
In the past, patients had no choice other than paying, medical insurance, and commercial insurance. Most hospitals are unable to realize the direct payment of new rural cooperative medical patients, and the time difference between medical insurance and medical insurance settlement in different places. The seemingly short time difference is that it is racing against life. Because of the self-imposed expenses and the certain amount of money to turn around, many families can only give up better treatment plans or difficult to continue medication, and can not reach the ideal treatment effect.
Zhong Guopu Hui co-founder Cong Guofan explained the phenomenon with data. He said: “We have also done some simple statistics, such as a suitable treatment plan, the population it covers may be 100%, but to When the doctor is at this level, the doctor will comprehensively judge the patient’s economic level and physical condition.
Choose a conservative treatment or a new treatment. There may be 20% to 30% of patients in this session, and there is no chance to get the best treatment. However, even if the doctor recommends a good treatment plan, some patients will still give up, a large part of the reason is that the cost of the treatment plan is higher, and the financial pressure is relatively large.
Although the medical insurance catalogue is constantly being adjusted, children’s medicines, emergency medicines, and major illness medications (such as antineoplastic drugs), innovative drugs are constantly Included in the catalog. But it is undeniable that most of the innovative drugs are excluded from medical insurance.
According to the 2017 China Pharmaceutical Market report, the sales of innovative drugs are mainly concentrated in the largest 162 hospitals in the first and second tier cities. Innovative drugs want to sink into the grassroots market, medical insurance can not be collected as a single, the proportion of self-paying is still large, and patients who use innovative drugs usually need continuous medication, so pharmaceutical companies must face the medical payment of innovative drugs.
With the support of a large amount of capital, domestic new drug research and development enterprises can be fully prepared to meet the outbreak period of innovative drugs, while the payment ability of domestic patients cannot be kept up to date, and the market for innovative drugs will benefit patients. At the time, the patient had to be discouraged because he could not afford it.
Resolving patient payment pressures or becoming one of the top issues in the medical field. At the policy level, the state has introduced policies to encourage the development of complementary payment methods, bringing more room for medical innovation.
In this contextThe drug staging has appeared. For patients who cannot afford high drug prices, it seems to usher in the “gospel.”
The picture shows the drug staging promotion page displayed on the official website of a company
After shopping staging, renting staging, and medical beauty staging, the Internet finance sun shines into the pharmaceutical sector that is critical to people’s basic health needs.
four years of growth
In terms of development history, drug staging began to appear in the wave of Internet financial innovation in 2016.
According to the report of “Selected Entrepreneur”, in 2016, a consumer finance company called Qian Dafu cooperated with Yunnan Trust to launch a drug staging service. Qian Dafu has reached strategic cooperation with multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Xi’an Yangsen, AstraZeneca and Roche to provide patients with interest-free installment plans.
In the medical staging service provided by Dr. Qian, the patient is not eligible to apply, but the parents, children, spouses, and relatives of the patient can apply.
Application for instalment or loan requires a patient’s diagnosis report or inspection report, hospital dunning notice or drug prescription, basic information of the borrower, and sesame credit. The maximum amount is 200,000, the longest is 24, and the daily rate is at least 0.03%. If the payment is not made on time, the late payment fee is required, and the late payment amount is levied at 1% of the total amount of all the unpaid repayments. Before the expiration of the period, the return of the principal in advance will be subject to a handling fee, which is 2% of the amount of the early repayment.
In 2017, Dianrong.com and China Resources Pharmaceuticals launched a financial phased project for Infliximab. The project focuses on autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis and Crohn’s disease.