Vital drugs for 'one and all'

Creating a "proactive, reasonable" rule of the game is crucial to the success of China's first basic medicine system, a core element in the new medical reform that aims to cut drug costs, experts have said.

Announcing a reform scheme yesterday, China said the new system will include a catalogue of necessary drugs to be produced and distributed under government control by 2011, to ensure everybody has equal access to essential medicines.

The public, especially socially vulnerable groups, have suffered under the current public healthcare system. Hospitals and clinics now are forced to generate profits - mostly through non-negotiable price hikes - after major funding cuts from the central government.