East China's Shanghai Municipality will host the first China International pharmaceutical fair from April 25 to 27, discussing the future development of China's pharmaceutical market and medical reform, according to sources with the organizing committee in Shanghai.

The most updated industrial and academic information will be brought to the fair, and it will display a great deal of research results in the field, so as to boost the interaction between pharmacy and medical treatment.

World top 50 pharmaceutical manufacturers, including Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo Smith Kline and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, had confirmed their attendance.

Presidents of 500 well-known hospitals in China will discuss the establishment of an intensive, fair and ordered competition environment and the formation of a Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturing chain with strong competitiveness in the world market.

The fair will be co-sponsored by major pharmaceutical corporations in China's four municipalities, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, together with Guangzhou in south China.

The organizing committee said that the fair would be hosted in the five cities in turn.

China has as many as 16,000 pharmaceutical manufacturers, and 13,000 enterprises are involved in medical sales.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2004)