The newly implemented Pharmaceuticals Control Law has brought about
a long-sought transformation of China's medicine industry.
The revised law went into effect December 1 after two-and-half-year
deliberation since the amendment to the Pharmaceuticals Control Law
was officially launched in October 1998.
Zheng Xiaoyu, director of the State Drug Administration (SDA), said
the implementation of the new law, coming shortly before China
formally becomes the member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), was
perfectly timed to bring the domestic pharmaceutical industry in
line with WTO rules.
"The economic and social changes following China's WTO entry have
brought about many new demands for the pharmaceutical sector.
Therefore, we have performed 'major surgery' on the former
Pharmaceuticals Control Law," Zheng said.
He
said the number of provisions in the new law is now nearly double
the amount in the original law; only two provisions remained
unchanged.
Observers have pointed out that the domestic pharmaceutical
industry will face great challenges after China's WTO
accession.
It
is necessary to keep the administration of high-quality medicine in
line with the international standards if domestic pharmaceutical
enterprises are to participate equally in global competition with
their foreign counterparts, experts said.
Bai Huiliang, an SDA official, said that the good manufacturing
practice (GMP), generally followed in the world, offers uniform
criterion for quality medicine control.
"The new law clearly stipulates that China's medicine manufacturers
must operate in accordance with the GMP standards, which conforms
to the WTO's fundamental principles concerning the medicine
production administration," Bai said.
Actually, China introduced concepts and provisions about GMP into
the domestic pharmaceutical industry in the early 1980s, but the
results were unsatisfactory.
"For a long time, China has failed to carry out strict
administration over the operation of pharmaceutical enterprises,"
with so many small and low-productivity manufacturers set up at
localities, thus causing a great waste of medical resources, Bai
noted.
Statistics show that China had about 3,700 medicine producers in
1990, but the figure shot up to over 7,500 in 1998, and only 87
enterprises or workshops gained GMP certification.
Zheng Xiaoyu said that with the implementation of the new law, some
6,300 domestic pharmaceutical enterprises will be required to abide
by GMP standards before the end of 2004.
Experts estimate that about a half of them will be shut down as a
result of the GMP checkup, which enables the powerful enterprises
to expand their scales quickly at a low cost.
Meanwhile, the new law will treat foreign medicine equally with
domestic brands by stopping the practice of examining the imported
medicine of each group and shifting the focus to market
supervision.
Yu
Mingde, an official with the State Trade and Economic Commission,
said that the amended law has simplified the administrative
approval procedures and established the regulations over the
imported medicine's examination and registration, which both meet
the demands of China's WTO entry.
As
a matter of fact, the influence of the new law on China's medicine
industry has been felt since it was passed by the Ninth National
People's Congress Standing Committee this February.
The new law stipulates that the medicine sales should follow
international conventions and meet China's needs. The establishment
of medicine chain stores has become a common practice throughout
the country.
Beijing now has over 360 chain stores out of the 1,000-plus drug
retail stores. Shanghai vice-mayor Zhou Yupeng noted recently that
Shanghai planed to set up 1,000 medicine chain stores before the
end of 2002.
Feng Guo'an, director of the Beijing Drug Administration, said that
since China's medicine retail trade will fully open to foreign
investors by January 2003, it's crucial for the domestic drugstores
to expand scale and strengthen competitiveness.
( December 9, 2001)