Chongqing- As the focus of China's COVID-19 epidemic response shifts from curbing new infections to preventing and treating severe cases, the supply of medicines has become a top priority.
China is making all-out efforts to ramp up the production of key medicines, said Zhou Jian, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Medicines will be prioritized for key locations, including medical institutions and nursing homes. Large pharmacies will be mobilized to develop online platforms to facilitate the delivery of drugs to patients in need.
Chongqing Municipal People's Government will scale up drug production and procurement and optimize e-commerce services to meet the medication needs of Chongqing residents.
Nationwide purchase of anti-epidemic medical supplies
Currently, more than ten local enterprises can normally produce Chinese patent medicines, antipyretic analgesics, cough medicines, antigen test kits, and medical protective masks (N95).
Statistics show that the weekly output of traditional Chinese medicine exceeds 5 million boxes (bottles), the weekly production of antipyretic analgesics exceeds 1.25 million boxes (bottles), and the weekly output of antigen detection kits is 35 million for relevant enterprises in Chongqing.
To fill the gap in paracetamol oral solution in Chongqing, the Chongqing Food and Drug Administration resumed and commissioned the production approval of Kerui Pharmaceutical (Group) 's paracetamol oral solution. The Administration also reviewed the inter-provincial commissioned production of ibuprofen sustained-release tablets by Southwest Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Whenever emergency medical supplies cannot be produced in the city, Chongqing will purchase them from other provinces. For example, the Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission will work with leading local pharmaceutical enterprises to strengthen cooperation with production, wholesale, and retail enterprises outside the city.
Recently, Chongqing purchased 19.144 million tablets of Antipyretic Analgesic, 4.78 million medical protective masks, and 7.798 million antigen detection reagents daily.
The special zone for COVID-19 drugs on e-commerce platforms
In response to the shortage of medical supplies and protective materials in Chongqing, Chinese e-commerce platforms Alibaba, JD.com, and Meituan launched the Chongqing COVID-19 Drug Zone.
The three major e-commerce platforms will provide 24-hour online medical consulting services, online drug purchases, and health knowledge popularization to ensure that citizens can find the right medicine.
To prevent any stock-ups on medicine, major platforms will limit the sales of emergency supplies to serve consumers in need better. Residents in need can visit the Chongqing COVID-19 Drug Zone between 10:00 and 20:00 to make purchases.
Four kinds of medicines will arrive in Chongqing this week. (Graphics/ CHEN YUTING)
In response to the shortage of oral antipyretic solutions for children, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has allocated 70,000 bottles of antipyretic drugs for children, 2.7 million tablets of antipyretic medicines for adults, 1 million units of antigen test kits, and 1 million boxes of Lianhua Qingwen Granules (capsules) to Chongqing, which are expected to arrive by the end of the week.