Development

China's medicine index published

By Li Yu (China Daily Sichuan Bureau)
Updated: 2011-04-18 17:41

Officials launch China's medicine index in Chengdu. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The medicines index of China was published by the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC on April 16. The index, published in Chengdu, will become the source of the national medicines market. It is also the first medicines index and the first state－level commodity index in the western region.

The Chengdu index, which is short for Chengdu medicines index of China, is authorized by the Ministry of Commerce as the Chengdu Hehuachi Chinese Herbal Medicine Market is the appointed place to collect the data.

The index is comprised with a price index and purchasing index, which reflects the current prices of medicine and the market prospects. Out of 4,500 kinds of medicines, 1,275 are selected to publish their price indexes.

Through the "Urban and Rural Market Information Service System Platform", the index will be used worldwide by the Ministry of Commerce. A net version http://cif.mofcom.gov.cn/cif/html is available once every week, while for urgent situations the data can be published any time.

The reason the index is located in Chengdu is due to the outstanding industry advantages. Sichuan is known as "medicine hometown" and "medicine storage" with the highest capacity nationally. Besides, in trading, Chengdu is the biggest distribution center in central and western areas of China.

It is reported that Chengdu Hehuachi Chinese Herbal Medicine Market is presently the biggest market with well equipped modern facilities. The volume and turnover of medicine annually is among the first three places of the whole 17 national counterpart markets.

Zhang Jingquan, Deputy Director of Chengdu Municipal Commerce Bureau, thinks the Chengdu medicines index of China as a important indicator that can allow the government and businesses timely access to knowledge of the related purchasing conditions and price trends nationwide. So the medicines market will go along the road of modernization, industrialization in the processes of planting, producing, purchasing and circulation.

As the Chengdu index is published, Chengdu Hehuachi Chinese Herbal Medicine Market has the most influential voice on price in the industry. It becomes the "weather barometer" of price change and "wind vane" of the industry's development. As a result, it centers the Chengdu price, which will guide China, and even the whole world in the price of medicine.

"It's of significance to the development of Sichuan and the whole country's medicine industry as well as the western commerce and trading center construction," a government official said.