Non-hospital prescription drug sales set to expand sharply

China's market volume of prescription drug sales non-hospital is estimated to reach 250 billion yuan ($35.6 billion) by 2020 thanks to the country's medical reforms, industry experts said.

Wan Quan, deputy director of the research office of the Development Center for Medical Science and Technology at the National Health Commission, said non-hospital sales will become the next major outlet for the Chinese pharmaceutical retail market.

Since the government put forward a policy in nation to slash drug prices and broaden reforms in the healthcare sector, the price of the drugs chosen from the tender process has dropped sharply. With the advancement of drug consistency evaluation, there will be 200 to 300 types of drugs included in the national centralized procurement, market insiders said.