China’s State Drug Administration (SDA) recently decided to streamline medicine production in China, knocking all disqualified drug manufacturers out of competition.
In accordance with the world Good Manufacture Practice (GMP), a lot of pharmaceutical manufacturers will have to close down, Bai Huiliang, director of SDA’s Safety Supervision Department, was quoted as saying by the Economic Information Daily Monday.
The reform on the medical structure requires drug manufacturers to develop hi-tech, profitable medicines and end production of low-quality drugs, Bai said.
With more than 6,300 pharmaceutical producers in China, the closedown of some will not greatly influence medicine production or lead to substantial price increases, Bai noted.
The SDA said manufacturers of powder injection and liquefied injection must meet the GMP standards by the end of 2002, the newspaper said.
Four out of the total 38 companies churning out hematic products have not met requirements of GMP and are ordered to close.
The SDA is speeding up its certificate issuance to qualified pharmaceutical manufacturers and 500 companies will get the go-ahead by the end of this year.
(People’s Daily 10/16/2000)
