Medical institutions sign with foreign pharmaceutical enterprises

Shanghai Pharmaceutical Co, Shanghai Medical Procurement Administrative Agency and representatives of local medical institutions have signed purchase letters of intent with foreign pharmaceutical enterprises.

These include Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson's Abbott Medical Optics and UCB.

The signing ceremony was organized by the Shanghai Medical Insurance Bureau at the China International Import Expo.

The letters of intent are for the nation's third batch of centralized procurement of medicine, and the city’s centralized procurement of medical supplies.

The total purchase intent is more than 840 million yuan (US$127 million), and most is for medicine.

Shanghai is the first city to arrange provincial-level medicine purchasing with set quantity in China. It has organized the purchase three times starting 2015.

In August, the Shanghai Medical Procurement Administrative Agency organized the nation's third batch of centralized procurement of medicine with 55 types of drugs. The amount will reach about 1.8 billion yuan.