Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice Research: A Review of Studies in China

The Pharmaceutical policy in China has changed greatly since the National Essential Medicines Program (NEMP) introduced the health system reform in 2009. A National Essential Medicine List (NEML) was issued in 2009, with 307 medicines. The second edition of NEML with 520 medicines was issued in 2012, and the third edition with 685 medicines in 2018. Other matching policies were introduced consequently, such as Zero Mark-up (essential medicines are sold to patients for procurement price plus a fixed distribution cost, with no profit for the sale to the health facility), province-based medicine, competitive-bidding system and so on. The Center of Drug Safety and Policy (CDSP), situated in Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) and founded in 2014, is working on pharmaceutical policy issues and providing the necessary evidence showing the efficiency of these policies. The results of these studies are reported in this chapter.