China is expected to realize direct drug distribution in at least 90 percent of counties and 80 percent of administrative villages, and establish a comprehensive drug supervision network in 60 percent of counties by the end of 2004, said a senior Chinese official in Beijing Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference, Zheng Xiaoyu, director of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), said that in the process of the economic system transformation, an incomplete drug sales and supervision system resulted in few varieties and high prices of drugs and spread of counterfeit drugs in rural areas.

Therefore, he said, the establishment of a drug supply network and drug supervision network is of vital importance for the safe use of drugs among the rural population.

A tendering system will be applied to the construction of the drug supply network, with chain distributors as the main players. The network will cover all rural drug supply units in the region.

In the construction of the drug supervision network, a three-tiered supervision network set up by the Beijing Drug Administration and consisting of social supervisors at county level, drug coordinators at town level, and information staff at village level, can serve as a good example.

According to sources, the experimental projects of the establishment of a drug supply network and drug supervision network started from June 2003 in Beijing, Jiangxi Province, Shaanxi Province, and Chengdu city of Sichuan Province. The coverage rate of these two networks will be over the national average rate by the end of 2004, and reach 90 percent and 80 percent respectively.

Source: Xinhua