China starts pharma e-commerce trial

28 June 2001

China's State Drug Administration has now designated eight medicaltrading companies to commence a trial on the use of e-commerce for medicines, according to Chinese Medical News.

In January, government officials had said the development of medical e-commerce was a non-reversible trend, and that regulations were needed urgently to deal with this, as well as to prevent the sale of counterfeit drugs through the Internet (Marketletter January 15)

At present, about 40 out of a total of 1,100 commercial web sites in China are related to medicines. Under the new Regulation on E-commerce Trials for Medicines, only certified medical trading companies are permitted to set up drug trading web sites, while pharmaceutical wholesalers may operate such sites provided these are in collaboration with certain legitimate Internet Content Providers. The regulation also requires all approved drug trading web sites to employ qualified pharmacists and staff who have medical expertise.

This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free.  A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.

Login to your account

Become a subscriber

 

£820

Or £77 per month

Subscribe Now
  • Unfettered access to industry-leading news, commentary and analysis in pharma and biotech.
  • Updates from clinical trials, conferences, M&A, licensing, financing, regulation, patents & legal, executive appointments, commercial strategy and financial results.
  • Daily roundup of key events in pharma and biotech.
  • Monthly in-depth briefings on Boardroom appointments and M&A news.
  • Choose from a cost-effective annual package or a flexible monthly subscription
The Pharma Letter is an extremely useful and valuable Life Sciences service that brings together a daily update on performance people and products. It’s part of the key information for keeping me informed

Chairman, Sanofi Aventis UK





Today's issue

Company Spotlight