Lugar warns China on healthcare price controls

The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee is warning China that its proposed price controls on medical products would hurt American companies and Chinese patients.

The letter from Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) comes as China weighs how to guarantee basic medical coverage to all 1.3 billion of its people by 2020. The U.S. medical device industry has its eyes fixed on the promising market but worries that China could opt for price controls, digging into its profits and making costly American products less competitive.

China is already a favorite target of lawmakers, who accuse it of manipulating its currency to boost exports. Locking American medical devices out of what could become the world's largest healthcare market would exacerbate those tensions.

In a recent letter to China's ambassador to the U.S., Lugar urged Chinese officials to listen to concerns that the industry has raised with them about a price-control proposal unveiled in August.

"This approach would be consistent with our mutual support for transparency and consultation as we work together to find mutually beneficial ways to further harmonize our commercial relations," Lugar wrote to Ambassador Zhang Yesui. "Both the United States and China would stand to benefit from a solution that achieves China's healthcare objectives without harming this important industry."

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