Reported by DuHui-Rong from Taipei

The Hospital Accreditation Committee of the MOHW passed a proposal on the 22nd to include the procurement of new biopharmaceuticals made in Taiwan into the criteria for medical center accreditation.  This decision will change medical centers’ preference for imported drugs, and increase the business opportunities for local manufacturers of new drugs or new medical devices.

As a major medical center accreditation is scheduled for next year, it is expected that hospitals intending to be up-graded to medical centers will increase their purchase of new biopharmaceutical products made in Taiwan.  It will give a boost to many local new drug developers, such as PhytoHealth, Microbio, TaiGen, PBF, PharmaEngine and Lumosa. 

The biopharmaceutical industry welcomes this new arrangement.  In addition to the NHI price incentives, this decision further demonstrates the government’s commitment to the biopharmaceutical R&D activities in Taiwan.  

At present, there are 19 medical centers.  Hospitals failing the accreditation will be displaced by newly qualitied hospitals. As the total number is fixed, the accreditation, which is carried out once every four years, is a major event in the healthcare industry. 

Hospitals are evaluated against five equally weighted indexes: health services, social responsibilities, the provision of holistic care, the participation in international health activities and innovation to improve healthcare quality.  There is not much difference among hospitals in the first four indexes.  Therefore, “innovation to improve healthcare quality” will be the major battle ground for existing medical centers, as well as for keen candidates.   

One of the items in the index of “Innovation to improve healthcare quality” is to support the development of the biomedical industry in Taiwan.  In order to get a good rating, hospitals will increase the purchase of new biopharmaceutical products and new medical devices made in Taiwan.  

The biomedical industry pointed out that many of our neighboring countries have already implemented protection mechanisms to support their local industries.  However, there has been no such policy in Taiwan.  As a result, generic drugs only account for 23% of the total drug expenditure, despite the fact that they have a market share of 75% in terms of volume. 

【2015-09-23/ Commercial Times】