BEIJING - Compared with 2017, the prices of 25 generic drugs dropped by an average of 52 percent thanks to a pilot procurement in 11 major Chinese cities, the organizer said Saturday.

As a major reform of the current centralized procurement system, the pilot program asked the participating cities to specify the quantity of each purchase, to give the manufacturers a clearer expectation.

Previously, the bidding usually only determined the price, but could not guarantee the purchase quantity.

The 11 participants of the program, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, account for about one third of the national market.