China's essential medicine costs down by 25 pct in 2 years

Prices for essential medicine in community-level clinics dropped by 25 percent over the last two years, according to an official from the Ministry of Health. Zheng Hong, director-general of the ministry's department of pharmaceutical policy and essential medicine system, said during a press conference that the drops came after the implementation of the essential medicine system in August 2009. Zheng said the system has been implemented in community-level healthcare institutions in all of China's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. He said health insurance coverage has increased significantly over the last two years. Essential medicine, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), refers to medicine that satisfies the healthcare needs of the majority of a given population and should available at all times in adequate amounts. Chinese people have complained about the high cost of medicine in recent years, as doctors have attempted to generate income for hospitals by aggressively prescribing expensive, and sometimes unnecessary, drugs. The essential medicine system requires government-funded community-level health clinics, both in rural and urban areas, to prescribe only essential medicine and to sell the medicine at cost price. Zheng said fulfilling subsidies for village-level clinics and realizing the full coverage of the essential medicine system in all villages will be the major focus of the ministry's work.