Zero-tariff step is good medicine

Anti-cancer drugs will soon be cheaper after State Council move

Zheng Lei and his friends were both excited and relieved on Thursday when they heard that the State Council, China's Cabinet, announced that the country would levy no tariffs on imported cancer-fighting medicines from next month.

Over the past 18 months, the 33-year-old engineer in Hefei, capital of Anhui province, has paid out more than 5,000 yuan ($793) each month on treatment, much of it to buy imported medicines to tackle his father's lung cancer.