07-Jul-16 Around 61% of people prefer to buy medicines online, a survey in India has showed, highlighting a major change in consumer trends, even as the battle between offline and online chemists has intensified. Over 800,000 chemists recently threatened to go on indefinite strike if the government failed to regulate online sales. [image: Tetra Images / Getty Images]

07-Jul-16 China's top pricing regulator has launched a round of drug pricing and healthcare financing reform in the latest attempt to improve the nation's public healthcare system. The pricing reform is expected by the end of 2020, by which time financing of all public hospitals will mainly depend on healthcare services and government compensation, rather than markup of drug prices. [image: Inventariando China]

01-Jul-16 Biotechnology is one of seven strategic industries that the Chinese government designated in the 13th Five-Year Plan. "Made in China 2025", an initiative to upgrade industry, also designates biotechnology as a key industry to push economic development. China's bio-pharmaceutical market is expected to reach USD601 bn by 2020. [image: China Daily]

28-Jun-16 Following the discovery of a counterfeit vaccine ring in the city, Jakarta is deploying personnel to raid private hospitals and clinics to ensure none of them use fake medications. The police have cracked down on counterfeit production and distribution in West Java, Jakarta and Banten and have discovered fake measles, polio, tuberculosis, tetanus and hepatitis B vaccines. [image: WorldNews Network]

28-Jun-16 Pfizer Inc will invest USD350 mn to build a biotech center in China, the latest in move by pharma industry giants to set up in the world's no.2 drugs market, with the aim of securing faster approvals for products. The facility in Hangzhou - Pfizer's first biotech center in Asia - is expected to be completed by 2018. [image: Reuters / Andrew Kelly]