Abstract

Background

China has achieved near-universal health coverage (UHC) for 95 percent of its population (>1.3 billion lives) as a result of healthcare reforms that began in 2009. However, one of many remaining issues in the Chinese healthcare system is the need to better optimize the allocation and use of healthcare resources in order to meet growing healthcare demands.

Objectives

The goals are to highlight the components of the China Guidelines for Pharmacoeconomic Evaluations (CGPE) 2020 Edition and discuss its future development for UHC in China.

Methods

We review the development process of the CGPE 2020 edition, discuss the contemporary practice of the CGPE for UHC in China, describe new opportunities and challenges to the CGPE, and provide suggestions on the future development of the CGPE based on the current state of the healthcare system in China.

Results

Pharmacoeconomics provides tools to evaluate the health returns and economic costs of pharmaceutical products in a scientific way for the optimal allocation of healthcare resources. Considering the great potential of pharmacoeconomics in China, demonstrated by its rapid development and recognition as a research field in the past decade, the standardization of pharmacoeconomic evaluations has become particularly important to improve the accuracy of evaluation results used for drug selection, price negotiations and adjustments.

Conclusion

Suggestions are made for the integration of CGPE into current framework of UHC in China, including standardizing the pharmacoeconomic evaluation process and updating CGPE on topics such as ethics and real-world research. The CGPE 2020 edition offers a standard to improve the quality of pharmacoeconomic evaluation research and enhance the value and efficiency of UHC in China.