By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-20 08:31:18 | Updated at 2025-01-20 12:07:40
3 hours ago
China’s healthcare regulator has pledged to investigate the quality of drugs under a new list covered by national insurance, after lawmakers in Shanghai warned that they might be substandard.
In a statement on its website on Monday, the National Healthcare Security Administration said it would send a team to Shanghai to seek suggestions, as well as collect evidence and clinical data on drug quality.
“The prerequisite for listing these drugs on medical insurance is that they are of reliable quality,” the administration said, promising that it would listen to clinical feedback on the effect of the drugs, and investigate how these were chosen in centralised procurement.
If quality issues are discovered, the drug maker concerned would be disqualified, the healthcare regulator said. It also pledged to consider other ways to ensure drug standards, such as stricter routine inspections.
The statement was in response to a proposal by 20 members of the Shanghai branch of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body.
The lawmakers, most of whom are from the medical sector, said they found in clinical practice that “the efficacy of some drugs procured through bulk purchasing is unstable, especially medications for high blood pressure and diabetes or anaesthetics”, Caixin magazine reported last week.
“In some cases, even increasing the dosage doesn’t work,” they wrote in the proposal, as reported by other Chinese media as well. “Doctors also feel helpless because they have no right to choose other drugs and there’s no channel to report to higher authorities.”
