Ministry of Health, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Supervision, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Commerce, State Food and Drug Administration and State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Implementing Opinion on the Establishment of the State System of Essential Pharmaceuticals

Issued: August 18 2009

Main contents: The state list of essential pharmaceuticals shall, in principle, be revised every three years (Article 4). People's governments at the provincial level shall, within the stipulated range of state retail guiding prices, determine the specific retail prices of essential pharmaceuticals for medical institutions established by the local government according to the uniform procurement prices, dispensing fees and pharmaceutical mark-up policy resulting from bid invitation. All regions are encouraged to explore various procurement methods to further reduce the prices of essential pharmaceuticals and the setting of the reserve price to prevent vicious competition (Article 11).

All essential pharmaceuticals shall be included in the pharmaceutical reimbursement list for basic medical protection. The ratio of reimbursement shall be markedly higher than that for non-essential pharmaceuticals (Article 16). Each province (district and city) shall implement the system of essential pharmaceuticals in 30% of the urban community health service institutions and county (base-level) medical institutions established by the government. The implementation shall entail centralised online public bid invitation for procurement, and uniform dispensing of pharmaceuticals, at the provincial level, prescription of essential pharmaceuticals only, and sale of pharmaceuticals with uniform retail prices. The state system of essential pharmaceuticals shall be preliminarily established by 2011, and full implementation of the said system that covers both urban and rural areas shall be completed by 2020 (Article 19). Other types of medical institutions shall also make the essential pharmaceuticals their first choice of pharmaceuticals. The percentage of use of the said pharmaceuticals shall reach a certain percentage (Article 13).