The National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) has reportedly released a reference guide for industry players, outlining which drugs are equivalent to volume-based procurement (VBP) winning drugs. The guide specifies which products can be clinically \u201creplaced\u201d by a particular VBP product. The aim is to guide drug usage monitoring, prioritize VBP products over alternatives, and prevent irrational drug replacement in clinical settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drug Categorization and Replacement Guidelines<\/strong>
According to the data, drugs are divided into three categories: \u201ccompletely replaceable,\u201d \u201cmostly replaceable,\u201d and \u201creplaceable to a certain degree.\u201d The list covers all 286 winning VBP bids across seven rounds, excluding products with different administration routes. The majority of drugs fall into the \u201cmostly replaceable\u201d category, while the smallest category is \u201ccompletely replaceable,\u201d with only 56 products listed. For example, tenofovir alafenamide oral normal release dosage form can completely replace adefovir dipivoxil, lamivudine, and telbivudine. Similarly, insulin aspart 50 injection can completely replace protamine human insulin mixture injection (50R) and protamine zinc recombinant insulin lispro mixture injection (50R). Up to 159 drugs can be \u201cmostly replaced\u201d by others, such as ezetimibe oral normal release dosage form replacing hybutimibe and sunitinib oral normal release dosage form replacing pazopanib.<\/p>\n\n\n\n