Shanghai looks to turn pharmacies into health care service providers
Shanghai will seek to further enhance its trade and investment functions to facilitate distribution of pharmaceutical products and optimize tiered management of retail pharmacies.
The city will fully leverage online and offline resources to fuel dual circulation of pharmaceutical products and build a new ecosystem for health care services, said Liu Wei, director of the market orders and trade division of the Shanghai Commerce Commission.
The market regulation administration and pharma authorities would focus on enhancing the online data center tracking major pharma sales and distribution status as well as specified industry parks and logistics centers to facilitate dual circulation of pharmaceutical products in the near future.
The city will further optimize a monitoring system for common fever drugs and anti-pandemic materials and supplies, which are essential in responding to public health emergencies.
Shanghai will also continue to attract regional headquarters of leading domestic and overseas pharma companies and issue specific incentives for industry players, Liu told the China Pharmaceutical Industry Information Annual Conference.
A joint working group from the commerce commission and medical product authorities has called for pharmacies to shift towards being health care service providers instead of selling points.
City-level data centers and the medical insurance bureau will also join hands with retail pharmacies to together enhance service and relevant health care education in communities and neighborhoods.
The city will also further leverage important expos and trade fairs such as the China International Import Expo and the China International Medical Equipment Fair to expand its influence by bringing together participants from all sectors in the industry chain, Liu added.
Shanghai's latest biopharmacuetical blueprint hopes to host over 50 integrated regional headquarters of biomedicine companies covering research, sales and trade functions. It's also set to become a trend setter for the integrated development of biomedicines in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Yang Jinbo, director of the Yangtze River Delta Sub-Center of Drug Evaluation and Inspection of the National Medical Product Agency, hopes to bring more industry expertise for innovative drug evaluation to further facilitate new drug launches.
This is expected to give an additional boost to the city's pharma innovation by raising the quality and efficiency of drug evaluation and seek a closer connection with pharma companies in the early research and development stage and the new drug registration stage.
