Bridging The Trade Deficit: China Revises Drug Law, Paves Way For Cheap Indian Generic Medicines To Enter Its Market

China has removed generic drugs, which are approved in India and other countries, from its list of “fake medicine”, making it possible for the patients in the country to use them in small quantities from 1 December, reports Hindustan Times.

According to the report, all the foreign generic drugs which were not approved in China were clubbed under the counterfeit category and were illegal to use till now. However, that changed with the advent of the newly revised drug administration law of China.

The revision was approved and announced on Monday (26 August) at the end of the session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), top legislature of China.

The Chinese patients will now be able to use foreign generic drugs in small quantities from 1 December.

As per the report, the revision in the law can prove to be a good news for Chinese patients suffering from diseases like cancer as they will now be able to access effective and cheap generic drugs from India.

However, it is unclear as to how patients were expected to buy the drugs when they are not available in pharmacies in China.

A Chinese state-run news portal, thepaper.cn, has explained that the revision of the law means that the generic drugs legal in other countries but yet to be approved in China have been removed from the category of “fake medicines”.

“Article 124 of the newly revised drug administration law stipulates that the import of a small number of drugs that have been legally listed overseas (but) without approval (in China) can be exempted from punishment in minor cases,” the news portal reported.

According to the Chinese state-run Global Times, the revision of the law does not mean that China is ready to relax management on generic medicine.

The development may help in bridging, although to a little extent, the trade deficit between China and India, which ballooned to $57.86 billion in 2018.