OBJECTIVES: To explore the impact of drug market matching policy (DMMP) on protamine shortage reduction in 12 provinces in China.

METHODS: The DMMP has been implemented to relieve Protamine short supply problem since March 2016, covering 12 provinces. To compare the DMMP’s effect, we selected Vitamin K1 as the control group, which was common in short supply in China and was also considered as an important drug used in emergency department as Protamine. All the shortage records of two drugs reported by hospitals in each province were collected from Chinese Drug Supply Information Platform between October 2016 and August 2017. Two indices are calculated for evaluating, the number of shortage reports per provinces each month (NS) and the percent of provinces in shortage each month (PP). Difference-in-difference analyses were used to compare the NS and PP over time after adjusting potential confounders.

RESULTS: The NS of Vitamin K1 increased from 2.83 to 3.92 during research period, whereas protamine decreased from 0.25 to 0. But we did not observe a significant decrease in NS in the intervention vs. the comparison group (P=0.60). The PP of Vitamin K1 and protamine were 0.33 and 0.08 before the DMMP. Then the PP of Vitamin K1 increased to 0.67, and the PP of protamine decreased to 0.00. A significant decrease was noted in PP in the intervention vs. the comparison group (P=0.062).

CONCLUSIONS: DMMP was helpful in reducing protamine shortage on some level in a short term. To get an accurate assessment of the DMMP’s effect, long-term monitoring were needed.