The Ministry of Commerce recently held a national pharmaceutical circulation industry management conference. Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei said that this year the Ministry of Commerce will step up the introduction of relevant regulations and standards in the field of pharmaceutical circulation and encourage the merger and reorganization of pharmaceutical distribution companies.

Industry Supervision "vacuum period" ends

It is reported that since the abolition of the State Economic and Trade Commission in 2003, the management of the pharmaceutical circulation industry has been lacking. Until December 25 last year, the State Food and Drug Administration formally announced that it clearly stated that "commercial authorities should become the administrative department of the pharmaceutical distribution industry." The pharmaceutical circulation industry officially announced that the six-year regulatory vacuum period has ended. In addition to the original regulatory scope of the drug regulatory department, the Ministry of Commerce will be responsible for the formulation of industry development plans, industry standards, and the establishment of statistical systems for the pharmaceutical circulation industry.

Jiang Zengwei revealed at the meeting that the Department of Market Order of the Ministry of Commerce will focus on the development goals of the industry and quickly put forward a catalogue system for drug circulation standards. Currently, it is urgently required, such as "Pharmaceutical Logistics Service Standards," "Pharmaceutical Retail Business Management Service Standards," and "Pharmaceuticals." "Standards for Modern Logistics Enterprises" and other industry standards will be established in this year.

However, the largest private pharmaceutical distribution company in China, deputy general manager of the Jiuzhoutong Group, Niu Zhengqian received an interview with the Yangcheng Evening News. He said that the Ministry of Commerce has just taken over and is still understanding and familiarizing with the overall status of the pharmaceutical distribution industry. It is also necessary to introduce industry standards. Take some time.

Pharmaceutical giant accelerates mergers and acquisitions

According to sources, the Ministry of Commerce will first intensively introduce policies for the integration of pharmaceutical distribution companies during the year.

"For a variety of reasons, the problem of small, scattered and disordered distribution companies is serious and the level of organization is low." According to Jiang Zengwei, China currently has more than 13,000 pharmaceutical wholesale companies, which is much higher than the world average. In the United States and Germany, for example, pharmaceutical sales in the United States account for more than 40% of the world's pharmaceutical market, but only a total of 70 pharmaceutical wholesalers in the United States, while Germany currently retains only 10 large-scale drug wholesalers, of which the largest three are accounted for. The domestic market share reached 60%-70%. In contrast, in 2008, there were only 491 circulation enterprises with pharmaceutical sales exceeding RMB 50 million in China, accounting for only 3.7% of the total number of pharmaceutical circulation enterprises in the country. Among them, China’s largest The sales of the top three companies also accounted for only about 20% of the total sales of the pharmaceutical commercial market over the same period.

It is reported that in the new medical reform, the State Council issued the "Medical and Health System Reform in the near future of the key implementation plan," it is clearly proposed to develop a unified distribution, to achieve the scale of business. Jiang Zengwei frankly, support the merger and reorganization of drug distribution companies, encourage drug distribution companies bigger and stronger , Optimizing resource allocation and increasing industry concentration will be one of the important goals of the Ministry of Commerce to take over drug distribution management.

In fact, at the beginning of 2010, many pharmaceutical distribution companies opened the prelude to mergers and acquisitions. Last month, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, Chinese and Western Pharmaceuticals, and Shangshi Pharmaceutical exchanged shares and absorbed the newly formed “medication”. The reorganization began with cross-regional mergers and acquisitions, signed a framework agreement with the purchaser in one breath, and planned to acquire and hold four local pharmaceutical distribution leading enterprises located in Jinan, Shandong, Jiangsu Changzhou and Guangdong, Guangzhou, etc. In addition, Kyushu The Tongtong, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and the Nanjing Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. Pharmacy giants searched for mergers and acquisitions across the country. According to relevant sources of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, the target has been selected and announced at the time.