China negotiating deep drug discounts

Officials of China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) said at a press conference that they expect to negotiate discounts of at least 50% on five patent-protected drugs as part of a pilot program, according to state news agency Xinhua.

In a note, Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Yeh identified the targeted drugs as HBV therapy Viread tenofovir disoproxil fumarate from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD); non-small cell lung cancer drugs Iressa gefitinib from AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN), Tarceva erlotinib from Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) and Conmana icotinib from Betta Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. (Yuhang, China); and multiple myeloma treatment Revlimid lenalidomide from Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG). ...