The reporter learned from the Ministry of Finance on the 21st that, in order to encourage the development of the pharmaceutical industry and reduce the cost of drug use for patients, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration of Taxation and the State Food and Drug Administration recently issued an announcement, releasing the third batch of anti-cancer drugs and rare disease drugs that apply the value-added tax policy. The third batch list includes 51 anti-cancer drug preparations and APIs, 20 rare disease drug preparations and APIs. According to the announcement, since December 1, 2022, for the drugs in the list, the domestic link can choose to collect the value-added tax by 3% in a simple way, and the import link can be reduced by 3%. Since 2018, China has successively released two batches of anti-cancer drugs and rare disease drugs that apply the VAT policy. He Daixin, director of the financial research department of the Institute of Finance and Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the preferential VAT on anti-cancer drugs and rare disease drugs is a policy of benefit to the people, which is conducive to reducing drug prices, ensuring patients' drug demand, and supporting the development of the pharmaceutical industry. (Outlook New Times)