Though there is 0 price difference for hospital drugs, the prices are actually still very high, mainly due to the following reasons:
The price of hospital drugs mainly consists of various factors, such as production cost, import cost, tax, management fee, transportation fee, etc., which are all factored into the selling price of the drugs.
Hospital drug purchases are usually made through winning bids, and suppliers may add some profit to the cost to ensure their profitability.
Hospitals, as an organization, also have to pay staff salaries, equipment maintenance costs, rent, utilities, and many other expenses, all of which need to be supported by some revenue from drug sales.
Hospitals may use higher-end drugs that cost more in order to ensure the quality of care.
There may be some information asymmetry when patients purchase drugs in hospitals, and there may also be some non-transparent behavior between hospitals and drug suppliers, all of which may lead to high drug prices.
So, although there is a 0% price differential for hospital drugs, they can still be sold at very high prices, requiring patients to make certain comparisons and choices when purchasing drugs.