China News Service, November 10. According to the website of the National Health Commission, on November 10, the National Health Commission, the National Medical Insurance Administration, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the State Administration of Disease Control and Prevention issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Safe and Rational Distribution and Use of Innovative Drugs." Focusing on the key aspects of the safe and reasonable deployment and use of innovative drugs, specific policies and measures were proposed in terms of promoting rational deployment, strengthening training and guidance, optimizing use conditions, and improving management measures.
First, medical institutions at level 2 and above are required to optimize and improve the admission system and work process of innovative drugs, hold timely meetings of the Pharmacy Management and Therapeutics Committee, and timely include innovative drugs in the institution's drug catalog based on business capabilities and diagnosis and treatment needs. Promote provincial and municipal hospitals to play a leading role step by step.
The second is to require regular organization and training of medication knowledge and medical insurance payment policies. Timely compile and publish expert consensus on the clinical use of innovative drugs, and timely incorporate drugs with sufficient evidence-based medicine into clinical diagnosis and treatment guidelines.
The third is to implement pharmaceutical-related medical service price items, further improve support and guarantee measures, and optimize the policy environment for the use of innovative drugs.
The fourth is to emphasize that there will be no restrictions on the number of total drug varieties and regulations in medical institutions, and it will be clarified that relevant innovative drugs will not be included in the performance monitoring indicators of public medical institutions such as the increase in the average outpatient drug cost and the increase in the average inpatient drug cost.
The full text of the notice is as follows:
Notice on further improving the safe and reasonable deployment and use of innovative drugs
National Health Office Medical Policy Issue [2026] No. 18
The health committees, medical insurance bureaus, traditional Chinese medicine bureaus, and disease control bureaus of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:
In order to thoroughly study the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and all previous plenary sessions of the 20th Party Congress, implement the deployment of the National Hygiene and Health Conference, implement the relevant work requirements for supporting the development of innovative drugs throughout the chain, promote the safe and reasonable deployment and use of innovative drugs, meet the people's diversified drug needs, improve disease treatment effects, and ensure the quality and safety of medical care, the relevant work is hereby notified as follows:
1. Promote reasonable equipment
Medical institutions at level 2 and above should optimize and improve the system and work process for the entry of innovative drugs into the hospital, promptly convene a meeting of the Pharmacy Management and Therapeutics Committee to discuss the update and adjustment of the institution’s basic drug supply catalog (hereinafter referred to as the drug catalog), and timely include relevant innovative drugs in the institution’s drug catalog based on the institution’s business capabilities and diagnosis and treatment needs. Hospitals at or above the provincial level and prefecture-level hospitals must play a leading role in demonstration and promotion at each level, and in accordance with the principle of actively standardizing their use, include Category 1 new drugs in the National Medical Insurance Negotiation Drug Catalog and the Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug Catalog (hereinafter referred to as the two catalogs) that the hospital has the ability and conditions to use, into the drug catalog of the institution, and maintain them in the institution's information system. The close medical consortium should dynamically adjust the drug catalog, and member units should be equipped with and use Category 1 new drugs in the two catalogs as needed to promote the connection between the upper and lower levels of grassroots drug use. Medical institutions are encouraged to include other innovative drugs in their drug catalogs based on their actual conditions.
2. Strengthen training and guidance
Provincial and municipal health administration departments (including departments of traditional Chinese medicine and disease control, the same below) should, together with the medical insurance departments in their respective jurisdictions, regularly organize industry experts and pharmaceutical companies to conduct training on medication knowledge and medical insurance payment policies for new drugs in the two catalogs, so as to enhance medical staff's understanding of relevant drugs and related policies. The scope of training covers at least hospitals at or above the municipal level within the jurisdiction. Promote the leading hospital in phase III clinical trials to organize and compile expert consensus on clinical use, publish it within six months after the relevant Class 1 new drugs are included in the two catalogs, and update it in a timely manner based on clinical use. The National Health Commission organized relevant professional institutions to strengthen the collection of clinical use information of Class 1 new drugs in the two catalogs, and promptly included drugs with sufficient evidence-based medical evidence into clinical diagnosis and treatment guidelines. Encourage relevant industry associations, professional organizations and high-level medical institutions to carry out experience sharing and academic exchanges on the use of innovative drugs. Local health administrative departments should guide medical institutions within their jurisdictions to implement relevant pharmaceutical management systems, strengthen comprehensive clinical evaluation, increase prescription review and review, and promote safe and rational use. The National Health Commission will pay special attention to relevant drugs during prescription spot checks.
3. Optimize usage conditions
Medical insurance departments in various regions must implement pharmaceutical-related medical service price items to fully reflect the value of pharmaceutical services. For cases that reasonably use innovative drugs in the national medical insurance catalog and are not suitable for payment according to the disease type payment standards, medical institutions are supported to independently declare special cases for independent negotiation. The medical insurance department should simplify and optimize procedures, organize experts to evaluate special individual cases on a quarterly or monthly basis, and implement project-based payment for relevant cases or adjust the payment standards for the case based on the evaluation results. Cases using drugs in the innovative drug catalog of commercial health insurance may not be included in the scope of medical insurance payment by disease type, and will be paid after review and evaluation procedures.
4. Improve management measures
Local health administrative departments are not allowed to limit the number of total drug varieties and regulations in medical institutions. Class 1 new drugs in the two catalogs are not included in the "one product, two regulations". Category 1 new drugs in the two catalogs are not included in the performance monitoring indicators of public medical institutions such as the proportion of essential drug prescriptions for outpatients, the utilization rate of essential drugs for inpatients, the proportion of essential drug procurement varieties, the increase in the average drug cost per outpatient visit, and the increase in the average drug cost per inpatient visit. Local health administrative departments should guide medical institutions to improve information systems and optimize internal management systems accordingly.
Local health administrative departments and medical insurance departments should continue to strengthen policy publicity and implementation training, increase guidance and support for medical institutions within their jurisdictions, and increase the policy awareness rate of relevant medical institutions. It is necessary to regularly schedule the deployment and use of Class 1 new drugs in the two catalogs of relevant medical institutions in the jurisdiction to promote policy implementation. All localities should promote the deployment and use of innovative drugs in the two catalogs in accordance with the unified national deployment, and shall not use regional product catalogs to restrict the use of non-local products. The National Health Commission and the National Medical Insurance Administration will conduct surveys in due course to guide and supervise the safe and reasonable deployment and use of innovative drugs.
