China will launch a long-awaited unified code name system in the
pharmaceutical industry, probably by the end of this year, one of
the persons responsible for drafting the system said yesterday in
Shanghai.
All medicines in the country will be included in the new system
and each drug will be given a code name for wide recognition and
digital management, according to Wang Jinxia, vice chairman of the
China Association of Pharmaceutical Commerce, who is one of the
three persons to draft the system.
"Everything is ready (for the system) and it only needs
government bureaus' approval," Wang said during a Sinopharm
Medicine Holdings Co event to adopt a new IT system.
In the past, names of medicines in China were written in
Chinese, English, Latin or just numbers, which lacked a unified
code name system.
Preparations for the system started in 1997 but the
implementation of it was delayed due to various bureaus and
organizations wanting to control the system, according to an
industry insider who declined to be identified.
"China's drug firms urgently need the unified coding system to
improve efficiency and cut costs," Wang said.
A total of 11 drug firms, which generate an annual revenue of
more than five billion yuan (US$657 million) each, accounted for 38
percent of combined industry sales.
Sinopharm Medicine, China's No. 1 drug distributor with annual
revenue of more than 10 billion yuan, announced yesterday it has
signed with US-based GSX International Inc and Shanghai-based
AgileSC Inc to adopt GSX's IT suite on supply chain management.
"The inventory cost is what we are most concerned with and the
GSX system will greatly help us," said Ma Wanjun, Sinopharm's
distribution division general manager.
All data can be shared and better managed with the new unified
code name system, industry insiders said.
(Shanghai Daily October 17, 2007)
