SCIO briefing on strengthening drug regulation to ensure drug safety for the public
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 28, 2023
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Recent years have seen the fast development of the new industrial form of online sales. Problems emerge as online pharmacy sales bring convenience to people. What are key measures to strengthen security supervision for online medicine, medical equipment, and cosmetics sales? Thank you.
Huang Guo:
Thank you, I will address it. That's a good question. As you pointed out, the development of online sales for medicine, medical equipment and cosmetics has accelerated. According to estimates, the online sales volume of medicine and medical equipment reached 292.4 billion yuan in 2022. It is projected to surpass 350 billion yuan in 2023, suggesting a huge market. The NMPA has planned and taken a series of measures to improve the convenience of online purchases and the quality and security of medicines sold online. These measures primarily fall into the following three aspects.
First, we have improved law-based governance. It is important to know that the internet is not beyond legal jurisdiction. We have promptly established and refined a system of laws and regulations to tackle newly emerged problems. As of now, we have rolled out specialized measures for the administration and supervision of online sales of medicines, medical devices, and cosmetics. These primarily clarify the legal liabilities of supervisory departments, businesses, and third-party platforms, strengthening regulations on online sales monitoring and case handling, highlighting relevant security risk control measures, and enhancing quality control throughout the whole process of online sales. Currently, drug regulatory departments at all levels are enhancing the publicity and implementation of these regulations, further improving supporting policies, and urging involved enterprises to fulfill their legal obligations in accordance with the law.
Second, we have strengthened cyberspace governance. Given that illicit online sales activities are not easy to uncover or track, we have promptly established a mechanism leveraging the strength of the internet for cyberspace regulation, and explored quick respond measures, thus to identify and eliminate potential security risks in online sales in no time. At present, we have achieved comprehensive online monitoring of online sales businesses and major third-party platforms. Moving forward, we will continuously strengthen monitoring and carry out relevant work in a more targeted, accurate, and timely manner. Addressing prominent issues, drug regulatory departments have conducted campaigns to rectify inappropriate practices in online sales of medicines, medical devices, and cosmetics. We promptly follow up leads to investigate and deal with illicit behaviors. We have also implemented a series of measures, such as removing faulty products, closing involved online stores, and revoking the registration of involved enterprises, to further sanitize the online marketplace. As you may have noticed, we have also publicly disclosed two batches of typical cases involving illegal online drug sales to reinforce the warning and deterrent effect, and resolutely crack down on various forms of unlawful online conduct.
Third, we have encouraged co-governance. We have strengthened interdepartmental cooperation, creating a regulatory synergy by promoting collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Cyberspace Administration of China, National Health Commission, and State Administration for Market Regulation. We harnessed the role of industry associations, established and improved industry norms, and strengthened industry self-regulation. We also encouraged the proactive involvement of media outlets and consumers to build a joint management network throughout the whole society. Hereby, I would like to emphasize that third-party platforms fulfilling their governance responsibilities is critical to improving the quality of online sales and fostering a sound ecosystem for this industry. Notably, major platforms such as Alibaba, JD.com, Meituan, Pinduoduo, and Xiaohongshu should take the lead in implementing platform responsibilities, make full use of their own technological and management advantages, intensify the legal qualification audit and management of their merchants, strengthen cooperation obligations in product recalls, risk disposal, and supervision and inspection, and collaborate with relevant departments to conduct relevant work. I believe that this is the only way for us to collaboratively achieve systematic management and comprehensive governance of online medicine sales.
Thank you.
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