Recently, there has been a "drug shortage" in some big cities. Some drugs are rarely seen in pharmacies, but their value has skyrocketed in the black market. For example, protamine is now out of stock nationwide, and heart patients are queuing for drugs to "save their hearts".​​

In fact, the purpose of the current centralized drug procurement is of course to control drug prices, and it is the buyer's duty to keep drug prices as low as possible, but prices and profit margins have always been the baton of production and supply. In this sense, high quality and low price must also conform to the laws of the market, that is, it needs to leave the necessary profit space for producers. Therefore, if the centralized procurement of drugs blindly pursues "cheap", even because the administrative order requires that the annual drug price needs to be lowered by a certain percentage, and the profit margin of "cheap drugs" is overdrawn, unreasonable "cheap" is destined to be impossible. Long-term "cheap" can be accounted for.

​​

It stands to reason that the centralized procurement of medicines should not be as simple as lowering prices. After all, for the supply of medicines, the price is only one aspect. The strength and production capacity of pharmaceutical companies and the risks of the supply chain of medicines should also be fully considered. In this regard, even if an ordinary enterprise is looking for a supplier, it will make a comprehensive consideration between price and supply risk, and choose multiple suppliers to ensure sufficient supply.

​​

In this regard, in the United States, which has also experienced drug shortages, in addition to establishing a drug reserve, it also plans to build a non-profit pharmaceutical factory to ensure the supply of cheap drugs. It has become a cheap drug, and can no longer participate in bidding, and can even increase in time. price in order to avoid being reversely eliminated due to excessive price pressure. In the face of the frequent "drug shortage" phenomenon, the distortions and defects in the drug price formation mechanism may need to be reflected and corrected more than unilaterally accusing pharmaceutical companies of "increasing prices".