The price of traditional Chinese medicine in China has been "high fever" for 4 years.

Over the past few days, a reporter from the Yangtze River Business Daily visited the medicine trading market, and medicine manufacturers lamented that due to the overall price fluctuations, it was difficult to do medicine business all over the country this year. Does the price of traditional Chinese medicine return to rationality from high level? What is the trend in the future?

Medicine merchants sigh that "business is difficult".

As the saying goes, "only when medicine comes to Qizhou is strange." Qichun County, Hubei Province is the hometown of Li Shizhen, a famous medical scientist in China, and one of the 17 professional markets of traditional Chinese medicine is here. Of the 1892 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica, there are more than 1000 in Qichun. Among them, there are more than 400 kinds of common Chinese herbs.

On August 20, the reporter came to Li Shizhen Avenue in Qichun County, where the "Hubei Li Shizhen International Pharmaceutical Port" was built, where there are nearly 100 operators of traditional Chinese medicine. Relying on the advantages of Qichun's "Huaxia Valley of traditional Chinese Medicine", the Medicine Port is also the largest distribution center of traditional Chinese medicine in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

When entering the medical port, all kinds of medicinal materials are sold on open shelves, and many pharmaceutical merchants come here from Wuhan, Yingshan, Dawu, Suizhou and other areas of Hubei to buy goods. The reporter visited more than a dozen business households and heard the same sigh: the prices of some Chinese herbal medicines have fallen all the way, and business is not easy this year.

Pan Yongsheng, the boss of Volkswagen Pharmaceutical Company, has more than 20 years of experience in the management of medicinal materials. His family has more than 300 kinds of medicinal materials, which are purchased all over the country and sold to Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangzhou and other provinces. He told the Yangtze River Business Daily that due to the influence of many factors, the prices of Chinese medicinal materials as a whole are indeed falling this year, with the proportion of falling varieties accounting for about 50%, and the prices of only 10% of the varieties are on the rise, among which wild Chinese medicinal materials have obvious price advantages due to the lack of supplies on the market.

"in particular, the number of commonly used Chinese herbal medicines produced in Gansu and Yunnan has declined significantly." Pan Yongsheng said that the prices of licorice, Panax notoginseng, Scutellaria baicalensis and Gastrodia elata are all falling. In particular, due to artificial speculation, the wholesale price of Panax notoginseng soared to 1000 yuan / kg a few years ago. In the past two years, the price is like a "roller coaster". This year, the wholesale price of 40 heads of Panax notoginseng is about 240 yuan / kg to 250 yuan / kg, while the whole goods are even cheaper.

The wholesale price of licorice was 14 yuan / kg in previous years, but it has dropped to 10 yuan / kg this year; Scutellaria baicalensis shipped 20 yuan / kg last year, but this year it has dropped to 14 yuan / kg; wild Astragalus membranaceus has dropped from 32 yuan / kg last year to 25 yuan / kg this year; Gastrodia elata dropped from 130 / kg last year to 140 yuan / kg, and dropped to 110 yuan / kg this year.

Pan Yongsheng noted that since last year, with the exception of Ejiao, the prices of other high-grade Chinese herbal medicines are not optimistic, such as Cordyceps sinensis, pilose antler, Dendrobium candidum and so on. He analyzed that under the influence of national policies, high-end consumption showed a downward trend, and the market supply exceeded demand. In addition, the capital turned to the stock market in the past two years, artificial speculation gradually returned to rationality, and prices began to fall.

But the exception is that donkey-hide gelatin is still going higher this year, and Pan Yongsheng estimates that the overall increase in glue is about 20%. Wang Qingshan, manager of Qichun Yiqun Pharmaceutical Industry, told reporters that the regular donkey-hide gelatin produced in Shandong has risen from 1000 yuan / kg last year to 2800 yuan / kg this year. "this is related to the state's strict control over the quality of donkey-hide gelatin, and pharmaceutical companies must change their new approval numbers before they can continue production. The cost of the pharmaceutical company increases, and the price goes up with the rising tide.

In fact, the prices of a small number of Chinese herbal medicines have risen slightly this year. Pan Yongsheng said that Poria cocos rose from 16 yuan / kg to 22 yuan / kg. With the enhancement of people's awareness of health care, the price of traditional Chinese medicine such as lotus seed, cassia seed and Artemisia argyi leaves has risen slightly.

"the price of traditional Chinese medicine is changing rapidly, and it will be updated every three days at the earliest." Pan Yongsheng said that his dealings with drugmakers across the country reflect that business is generally difficult this year. "A friend in Bozhou, Anhui Province said that it would be nice to break even this year." Similarly, the owner of Qichun first Pharmaceutical Company estimates that the turnover of the store is expected to decrease by 400000 yuan compared with the same period last year.

The price of traditional Chinese medicine has fallen as a whole.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers find it difficult to make money. Is the market price of traditional Chinese medicine really declining?

On August 20, at the price monitoring center of the Qichun County Price Bureau, Director Wu of the center presented a set of data. In November last year, the price of Panax notoginseng in Qichun fell sharply. The reporter saw that on November 14 last year, the price of Panax notoginseng was 200 yuan / kg, down 33.33% from 300 yuan / kg on November 5.

Director Wu analyzed that the price of Panax notoginseng dropped sharply in mid-November last year, because at that time, a large number of new goods of Panax notoginseng were on the market, and the market supply exceeded the demand. In China, Panax notoginseng is mainly planted in Wenshan, Yunnan Province, while due to the sharp rise in the price of Panax notoginseng since 2009, the planting area has been expanding. Panax notoginseng, which was expanded at its peak in 2012, just went on the market in November. Since then, the price of Panax notoginseng has remained at that level.

Until March this year, the price of Qichun traditional Chinese medicine generally rose. Of the 18 major varieties monitored, 15 were up and 3 were flat. "some middlemen of traditional Chinese medicine hoarded goods at the end of the year and the beginning of the year and reserved them for later sale, resulting in a rise in the price of traditional Chinese medicine. Coupled with the influence of haze weather, the demand for traditional Chinese medicine has increased during this period. " Director Wu analyzed.

The reporter observed that this time the price of traditional Chinese medicine is not strong enough. According to the latest monitoring report in July this year, compared with the same period last year, the prices of traditional Chinese medicine mainly decreased, with 10 varieties declining and 7 varieties rising compared with the same period last year. In particular, the prices of Panax notoginseng, fat sea and white chrysanthemum have dropped greatly. Among them, the wholesale price of Panax notoginseng decreased by 56% compared with the same period last year. Fat sea fell by 42.9%, white chrysanthemum by 41.5%, licorice by 29.4%, Platycodon grandiflorum by 24.6%, and Angelica sinensis by 35 yuan / kg, which was also 12.5% lower than the same period last year.

The market price of some traditional Chinese medicine in Qichun County is "plummeting", which is closely related to the national market. Changjiang Business Daily reporter learned that at almost the same time, the prices of traditional Chinese medicine in Gansu, Yunnan and other places are also facing the same dilemma. The prices of Dendrobium, Panax notoginseng and Maca in Yunnan have plunged.

At present, the wholesale price of Dendrobium candidum from Wenshan, Yunnan Province is about 230yuan / kg, while the price of Dendrobium candidum once reached 1200 yuan / kg at its peak, and the price of Dendrobium candidum has dropped from 700yuan / kg to about 100yuan / kg.

Panax notoginseng, known as "Jinbu", is a business card of traditional Chinese medicine in Yunnan, but its price has also fallen off the cliff. On May 19 this year, the price of Panax notoginseng fell to 119.7 yuan / kg, while the price of this kind of Panax notoginseng hovered around 300 yuan / kg a few months ago. Looking back at the price fluctuation trend of Panax notoginseng, it took only more than two years for the 120 head of Panax notoginseng to fall from 900 yuan / kg to 100 yuan / kg.

According to the monitoring of Tiandi Network of traditional Chinese Medicine, since May, the price of 120 non-standard heads of Panax notoginseng ranges from 100 yuan / kg to 110 yuan / kg, the price of standard head ranges from 115 yuan / kg to 120 yuan / kg, and the price of 20 standard heads ranges from 380 yuan / kg to 400 yuan / kg, which is 70% to 90% lower than that in 2013.

The wholesale prices of some Chinese herbal medicines have plummeted, but ordinary people do not have an obvious feeling. At the Wuhan Hospital of traditional Chinese Medicine, a patient said that the price of the same medicine this year was more than 40 yuan higher than that of last year. Major hospitals are also facing the price pressure of traditional Chinese medicine. Take Asarum, the most common prescription for summer treatment of winter disease, for example, the purchase price per kilogram last year was 160 yuan, but this year it has risen to 280 yuan, and the purchase price of 1 kilogram of vinegar Corydalis rose from 116 yuan last year to 140 yuan this year. The head of a Chinese medicine pharmacy in a third-class hospital in Wuhan estimated that the overall price of traditional Chinese medicine has risen by about 1gam3, and the price of individual medicinal materials has nearly doubled.

Pan Yongsheng explained that retail prices are not as volatile as those in the wholesale market, and some middlemen hoard goods to raise prices, and relative price fluctuations are delayed to a certain extent.

Blind seed expansion and capital withdrawal are the main reasons.

Why did the price of traditional Chinese medicine plunge again and again in the hot market a few years ago?

Public data show that the price of traditional Chinese medicine in China has been "high fever" for 4 years. A reporter from the Changjiang Business Daily saw from the price data of traditional Chinese medicine disclosed by the "Business Society" that drug prices have risen sharply for four years since 2009. Among them, the three herbs Ophiopogon japonicus, Coptis chinensis and Radix Pseudostellariae, which have the biggest price increases, rose in August 2011 to 4.7 times, 2.5 times and 14.3 times of the market prices of the same period in 2009, respectively.

Zhang Jun, director of the Qichun County Medicinal Materials Office, said that the prices of traditional Chinese medicine experienced a sustained price rise from 2009 to 2012, which has inspired drug farmers to become more active than ever before. Tempted by the rising price tide, farmers of traditional Chinese medicine have also increased their planting volume, resulting in a market oversupply after entering the harvest period, which also led to a general decline in prices. At the same time, in order to avoid risks, many production enterprises participate in batch procurement, which not only pushes up market prices, but also causes today's "stagflation" situation.

In addition to blind seed expansion leading to oversupply, a sales person in the pharmaceutical industry also analyzed that the gift market of traditional Chinese medicine has always existed, and traditional Chinese medicine, as a resource item, is also easy to be hyped. Under the current anti-corruption efforts, the sales of high-end medicinal materials have declined, resulting in a drop in prices.

In addition, "the price of traditional Chinese medicine has dropped significantly recently, which is directly related to the previous hype." The sales director of a proprietary Chinese medicine in Hubei said that now that the water in the hype has been squeezed out, the price will naturally come down. Jia Haibin, deputy director of the traditional Chinese Medicine Information Center of the China traditional Chinese Medicine Association, once believed that the decline in the price of the originally high-priced varieties of traditional Chinese medicine is far from the end.

Pan Yongsheng told the Business Daily that in the past, every second half of the year was the peak season for replenishment, and ginseng and other traditional Chinese medicine materials were in great demand and the price was good, but this year the situation was not optimistic. "take red ginseng, for example, although the current decline is not big, the medium-quality one has dropped from 700 yuan / kg last year to 650 yuan / kg at present. According to the analysis of several pharmaceutical companies across the country, ginseng category will definitely continue to decline this year."

The quality control of traditional Chinese medicine is becoming more and more strict, especially for pesticide residues, heavy metal content and so on. Changjiang Business Daily reporter learned that since last year, Chinese herbal medicine enterprises are facing a new round of GMP certificate renewal. According to industry estimates, 7.6% of the companies have lost their qualification to produce prepared slices, and eventually more than 10% of the companies may have their certificates confiscated.

Huang Decai, manager of a traditional Chinese medicine enterprise in Badong County, Hubei Province, told the Yangtze River Business Daily that for pharmaceutical companies, each batch of Chinese herbal medicines must have an inspection report. In other words, if the raw material is found to be unqualified, the GMP certificate will be revoked. Under this policy, enterprises no longer dare to purchase goods in the traditional Chinese medicine market at will as before.

"Enterprises do not dare to purchase goods at will, and a large number of bulk goods are hoarded in the market, and there is no way out." Huang Decai said that at present, the impact on the market is that the upstream drug market is very light, which directly affects the volume and price of prepared pieces of traditional Chinese medicine. "as far as I know, many drug farmers and dealers are saying that it is difficult to make money, and the major medicine trading markets across the country are relatively weak."