China Reforms Current Drug Management SystemChina's State Council recently approved the "Reform Plan on Medicine Supervision and Management System" submitted by the State Drug Administration. The plan is acted upon to reform the current drug supervision and management system in accordance with the principles of simplification, unification and efficiency.According to the plan, China will conduct a vertical management in drug supervision and management departments at below the provincial level, intensify supervision and control over medicines, gradually set up a drug management system featuring legal management, unified law enforcement, standard code of conduct, honest practice and high efficiency, so as to promote the healthy development of medical and health services. To meet the objective requirements of drug administration and the need of the development of medical service, a drug supervision and management organ is formed to exercise unified supervision and management functions over drug administration, drug inspection, production and circulation. It is regulated by the plan that the medicine administrations of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities are the working departments of the people's government of the same level. Their major responsibilities are to lead the drug administrations below the provincial level and to perform their legal functions. In compliance with the need of the work in prefecture (league)ˇ˘prefecture-level cities, drug administration bureaus will be set up directly under the provincial drug administrations. In districts in municipalities and larger cities, sub-bureaus can be established to meet the demand of work, which are the agencies of drug administration organs at higher level. It is required by the plan that the reform of drug administration system shall be conducted under the unified leadership of the State Council and implemented under the organization by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. It will have been basically finished by the end of 2000. In the light of administration system reform, efforts should be made to promote the change of functions, straighten out working relationships, increase working efforts and raise the law-enforcement level. |
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