China plans to add a record 61 types of medicine to its national bulk-buy program, with an average price cut of 56 percent, the country's drug procurement authority said last week.

The range of medicines involved is also unprecedented, covering products for common chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, coronary diseases, and diabetes, as well as multiple cancers, according to a preliminary list released by the nation's centralized drug procurement office on June 23.

Gong Bo, an official at the Shanghai Municipal Healthcare Insurance Bureau, said this round of procurement is estimated to involve drugs worth about 55 billion yuan ($8.5 billion), the highest value ever. "It is estimated that the new list could save patients 25.5 billion yuan a year," he told news outlet ThePaper.cn.

China launched the national centralized procurement mechanism in late 2018 as part of efforts to alleviate the public's medical burdens. The mechanism asks drugmakers to significantly cut prices to win bids for enrollment in large-volume procurement led by the government.

Since then, five rounds of the program have been rolled out, including the most recent one that wrapped up in Shanghai last week. A total of 218 types of medicines have been listed so far, involving about 220 billion yuan, according to authorities.

Final results for the fifth round have yet to be released, but patients are expected to be able to access the drugs at reduced prices in October, they added.

A notable feature of the latest round is that injectable medications, commonly used for intensive care and treatment of serious symptoms at hospitals, account for about half of the list and 70 percent of the estimated market value.

Ding Yilei, an official at the National Healthcare Insurance Administration, said injectable drugs take up about half of the chemical pharmaceutical market.

"Listing more of them in the national centralized procurement program signals that China has zeroed in on the most significant portion of the costly medicine sector," he said.

One example is Oxaliplatin, an injection used to treat advanced colon cancer that is usually taken twice a week. After being put on the list, its price dropped from 1,760 yuan per dose to 310.5 yuan.

The preliminary list includes 251 products from 148 pharmaceutical companies, including 10 foreign-funded enterprises.

Gong said the increasing number of foreign companies on the list means that many costly imported drugs will be affordable for the public and the domestic market is becoming more appealing to foreign drugmakers.

Yao Yu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Economics, told Xinhua News Agency that about 50 foreign-funded companies had participated in this year's bidding process, signaling their increasing willingness to engage in the national procurement mechanism.