A direct pharmaceuticals distribution system is expected to be
in place in at least 90 percent of China’s counties and 80 percent
of its administrative villages by the end of 2004. A comprehensive
drug supervision network should extend to 60 percent of counties
within the same period.
Zheng Xiaoyu, director of the State Food and Drug Administration
(SFDA), said Thursday that in the process of the economic system
transformation, incomplete pharmaceuticals sales and supervision
systems resulted in limited selection and high prices as well as to
the spread of counterfeit drugs in rural areas.
He said that the establishment
of drug supply and supervision networks is of vital importance for
the safe use of drugs among the rural population.
The drug supply network will be based on a tendering system,
with chain distributors as the main players. The network will cover
all rural drug supply units.
A three-tiered network set up by the Beijing Drug Administration
and consisting of supervisors at county level, drug coordinators at
town level, and information staff at village level, is planned for
drug supervision functions.
Trial versions of the supply and supervision networks were
launched in June 2003 in Beijing, Jiangxi Province, Shaanxi
Province and Chengdu City of Sichuan Province.
(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2004)