China Medical News

A guideline to improve the supply to prevent shortages was issued on Wednesday (June 28th) by nine government agencies, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

China has about 3,000 drugs approved for common clinical use, with 130 of them occasionally in short supply, according to Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission. "That's mainly due to the market gap between supply and demand," Zeng said.

Under the new guideline, an online drug consumption monitoring network will be set up to determine which drugs might run out and issue timely warnings about emerging needs so that the authorities can intervene. The guideline calls for the creation of a cross-province coordinating system to alleviate regional shortages of certain drugs.

For drugs in short supply nationally, emergency imports will be arranged, and if that doesn't work, "the authorities will assign selected drug companies to produce more", Zeng said. (Source: China Daily)