Pharmaceutical policy in China

Abstract

The Chinese government is implementing a systematic plan to achieve universal access to health care by 2020. One of the key pillars of this policy is to establish the National Pharmaceutical Policy. The aim is perhaps to ensure drug safety, quality, supply, and affordability. The China Food and Drug Administration have established regulatory systems to monitor the drug production process from manufacturing, distribution to safety monitoring, and medicines use. Although China has aspired to be a global manufacturer in the past decades, innovative drug development and generic medicines promotion policies are urgently needed to push China to become a true innovator in global pharmaceutical market. In China, the hospital pharmacies sell about roughly four fifths of all retail medicines sales. Economic incentive from prescribing medicines has been regarded as a factor influencing irrational and over use of drugs. In response to the rapid growth of drug prices and the ineffectiveness of previous price setting policy, the National Development and Reform Commission eliminated price ceilings in June 2015. To improve people’s access to low-cost and high-quality essential medicines, a zero-markup policy will be introduced to all public health care institutions by 2017. With the implementation of Separation of Dispensing from Prescription policy, retail pharmacy will play a much bigger role in drug supply chain. However, pharmaceutical care provision has not been a priority for routine community pharmacy practice; multiple measures are needed to improve the contribution of pharmacists to pharmaceutical care.