Guideline to guarantee supply of medicines

The General Office of the State Council issued a guideline on Oct 11 aimed at ensuring sufficient stocks of medicines that tend to be in short supply and stabilizing their prices.

Ministries and provinces should work together to set up a multisource information platform and a monitoring system that can be used to share information on the production of medicines and their prices.

There should be a national list of medicines in short supply, and all provinces should have their own such lists.

The National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration should design a system to manage the lists.

Local authorities should improve the management of medicines on their lists and, at the same time, avoid excessive interference in their pricing, according to the guidelines.

Health insurance regulatory authorities should monitor medicine prices and issue alarms when prices surge abnormally and take effective measures to curb such price hikes.

The authorities should also punish those seeking to monopolize medicine production and the supply of drug ingredients strictly and according to law.

The central and local governments should enhance their stocks of medicines and encourage large pharmaceutical companies to build up stocks of medicines that could be released when shortages occur.

The causes of medicine shortages vary, but they include monopolies in production and the increasing cost of ingredients.

Cabinet approves revised Archives Law

A draft revision of the Archives Law was approved at the State Council's executive meeting on Oct 8.

It was decided at the meeting that the draft will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress after further editing.

The draft defines the responsibilities of different organizations in managing archives, adds into the law stipulations about the digitization of archives, and clarifies the validity of digital archives.

It also shortens the period of time archived material will be classified.

Plan for China-SCO trade zone OK'd

The State Council has approved a general plan submitted by the Shandong provincial government and the Ministry of Commerce to establish a demonstration zone for regional economic and trade cooperation between China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Qingdao, Shandong province.

The construction of the demonstration zone should be carried out according to the decisions made by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, it said.

The zone should be a new platform for international cooperation to promote the Belt and Road Initiative, and should expand cooperation in areas including international logistics and modern trade.

The zone should enable Qingdao to play a bigger role in the construction of the New Eurasian Land Bridge and maritime cooperation, and should strengthen interconnectivity between China and the other members of the SCO, the State Council said.

The other SCO member states are India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.