China price cuts put pressure on foreign drugmakers

Beijing

STARTING from June 1, most drugs in China will be liberated from government-set price caps. For foreign drugmakers, though, pressure to cut prices is rising.

Since late last year, many provincial governments have introduced new bidding systems to lower the cost of medicines they procure, and they're pushing multinationals to compete more directly with cheap local generics on price.

That's forcing many overseas drugmakers to stop selling certain treatments to public hospitals in regions where prices are pushed too low, according to…