On August 20, 2020, during the on-site quotation process for the third batch of national drug centralized procurement, many multinational companies were directly eliminated because their quotations exceeded the highest effective declared price. This matter has also aroused widespread concern in the society.

Another reason why multinational companies bid at high prices in this centralized procurement may be that the state does not have absolute requirements that non-centralized procurement products cannot be sold in medical institutions. This shows that even if you don't win the bid in the centralized procurement, you still have the opportunity to sell in medical institutions with your high-quality products and marketing methods.

Some netizens believe that these multinational pharmaceutical companies are collectively ignoring the rules of centralized purchasing and deliberately quoting ultra-high prices in order to demonstrate against this centralized purchase. News about this controversy has contacted the relevant companies to learn about the situation, but has not yet received an official response to the incident. Some people believe that multinational pharmaceutical companies quote high prices in centralized procurement despite knowing that they are unlikely to win the bid. The purpose should be to show that as a multinational company operating in China, it attaches great importance to the pharmaceutical policies of this international country. The result of not being selected in the end was not that there was no active participation in the quotation, but that the price was not competitive with other companies.

Due to the high quotations from multinational companies, it is very difficult for retail pharmacies to survive in the context of mass purchasing. In recent years, medical insurance has made increasing efforts to control costs, by reducing drug purchase prices and collecting large quantities of drugs, and through various payment system reforms to reduce the payment burden on medical insurance funds and the people. Retail pharmacies designated by various medical insurance companies must be strictly controlled. Some regions have also put forward a price limit standard of "maximum price increase of 15%" for medical insurance designated pharmacies. ?This centralized purchase involves a variety of drug information from many multinational companies, and data shows that in the first two centralized purchases, the sales data of individual companies' products that did not win the bid were better than those of the winning products. Therefore, even if you do not win the bid, it is still possible to enter the medical institution sales with high-quality products and marketing methods.