China strengthens regulation of medicine use

BEIJING - China's National Health Commission (NHC) has issued a set of instructions on updating a state-level medicine catalog to ensure rational drug use.

The mechanism aims to monitor chemicals and biological products with frequent problems in clinical use or abnormally high costs.

The drugs to be monitored will be recommended by local hospitals and collected and published by the NHC.

In normal circumstances, 30 kinds of drugs will be included in the state-level catalog, according to the instructions.

The NHC said by implementing the instructions, it will keep strengthening the management and regulation of clinical drug use and make the use of drugs safe, efficient, economical, and appropriate.