Chinese experts urged to better regulate and standardize the country's pharmaceutical services to match the on-going medical care reform and improvement, China Daily reported Friday.
Yuan Tianxi, vice-president of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association (CPA), was quoted as saying that pharmaceutical services exert a key influence on the results of medical treatment,but the country's research and regulation on the service is still in a fledgling stage.
This situation does not match the country's medical care reform and improvement of people's awareness for health, Yuan said.
The English language newspaper also cited Xu Jiaqi, an official with the State Drug Administration, as saying that there lacks a legal definition for pharmaceutical services in Chinese law, regulations and documents related with medicine.
Careful thinking should be given to the definition of medical services, which would be crucial to the work of medical units and medicine producers, dealers and chemists, Xu said.
Xu said the nation should strengthen supervision of pharmaceutical services in advance, instead of retrospectively. Enhanced examination and appraisal of pharmacists and medical workers should be introduced to guarantee the safety of medicine users.
Officials and experts also urged that unfair competition in pharmaceutical services industry should be stopped and more effective measures of self-discipline should be adopted, the newspaper said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2003)
