China's FDA will allow online drug sales soon

 09-Jan-15, Reuters

China will allow online sales of prescription drugs as early as this month, a policy that will open up an over 1 trillion yuan ($161 billion) market to online pharmacy operators like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Image: Reuters/Stringer

The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) is finalising which prescription medicines to approve for sale, a senior healthcare policy adviser told Reuters.

The policy would help reform a fragmented and opaque market controlled by state-run distributors and hospitals, brought into the spotlight last year by a bribery case which saw drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC fined nearly $500 million.

Hospitals currently account for around 70 percent of drugs sold to consumers. Among retailers, online pharmacies are restricted to selling over-the-counter medicines and healthcare products such as cough remedies and vitamin tablets.

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