Beijing accelerates efforts to import drugs
2024-08-08
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Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 7 (Reporter Chen Xu) Customs data show that in the first half of 2024, the import and export volume of the pharmaceutical and health industry in Beijing was 81.06 billion yuan, of which the import volume of medicinal materials and medicines was 64.56 billion yuan, ranking first in the country. Stepping into the Beijing Capital International Airport Airport Economic Zone, the gathering place of the pharmaceutical import industry, you can deeply feel the growth vitality generated by a number of pioneering policies. Establishing a pilot zone for rare disease drug protection, promoting pilot projects for cross-border e-commerce sales of pharmaceutical products, and opening a green channel for imported biological product inspections... One by one, the innovative measures have benefited the people a lot.
Lighting up the lamp of hope for patients with rare diseases
On August 7, Beijing publicly solicited opinions on the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the Construction of a Pilot Zone for Rare Disease Drug Security in Beijing (Trial) (Draft for Comments)". The plan proposes to establish a "white list" system covering the entire process of temporary import, circulation, and use of drugs urgently needed for clinical use of rare diseases, promoting the transformation from "people waiting for drugs" to "drugs waiting for people". Industry insiders believe that this brings hope for solving the problem of limited available drugs for rare disease groups.
In November 2023, the State Council approved the establishment of a pilot zone for rare disease drug security in Beijing Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone, which brought good news to domestic rare disease patients from a policy level.
On April 11, the rare disease drugs prepared in advance were shipped by cold chain transport vehicles from the Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone located in the Capital Airport Economic Zone. Xinhua News AgencyIn April this year, a cold chain transport vehicle carrying vosoritide, a drug for children with osteomalacia, went directly from the Capital Airport Linkong Economic Zone to Beijing Children's Hospital. After the doctor prescribed the drug, the parents of the 4-year-old child successfully obtained the drug for treatment, setting a record for the shortest time for unlisted drugs to enter clinical trials in China.
Since the beginning of this year, Beijing's medical institutions, regulatory authorities, and pharmaceutical trading companies have worked closely together to explore the import of rare disease drugs that are not registered and listed in China. Behind the extremely fast delivery of drugs is a high respect for life.
The difficulty in diagnosing rare diseases is also a "mountain" that stands in front of patients. To this end, the Capital Airport Economic Zone signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Rare Disease Alliance to establish Beijing's first professional rare disease diagnosis and treatment institution - Beijing Hanmeng Clinic. Since the opening of the clinic, it has organized many free clinics and seminars for rare diseases, further improving the accessibility of rare disease diagnosis and treatment and drugs.
At present, the park has gathered many medical institutions such as Beijing Hanmeng Clinic and Friendship Hospital, more than 30 well-known domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies such as Shanghai Pharma, Sinopharm, China Resources, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck Serono, and attracted many international companies such as Pfizer, Novartis, Bayer, and Merck to carry out pharmaceutical distribution business.
Make more imported medicines available for purchase at any time
"I placed an order on an online platform at night and had it delivered to my doorstep the next afternoon. It was so fast, it was surprising." Mr. Ma, who lives in Mapo Town, Shunyi District, Beijing, said that he bought an imported pain-relieving patch. In the past, it took more than a week for delivery after placing the order. Now, many imported medicines can be delivered the next day, which is really convenient.
The transformation to a convenient cross-border drug purchase began five years ago. In 2019, the Capital Airport Economic Zone took the lead in promoting the pilot policy of cross-border e-commerce sales of pharmaceutical products in the country. After years of development, the pilot business has seen annual sales volume jump from 250,000 orders to a peak of nearly 4 million orders.
On February 1, staff members worked in a cold storage located in the Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone in Shunyi District, Beijing. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren ChaoIn the cross-border pharmaceutical bonded warehouse in the Capital Airport Economic Zone, rows of tall shelves are neatly arranged, storing pharmaceutical products from Japan, Germany and other countries. According to on-site staff, imported drugs have already "lying" in Beijing before consumers place orders. The warehouse is divided into different areas, and various products are properly placed according to different storage conditions such as temperature and humidity.
At present, there are 7 enterprises approved to pilot cross-border e-commerce sales of pharmaceutical products in the Capital Airport Linkong Economic Zone, covering more than 70 categories. According to the relevant person in charge of the Capital Airport Linkong Economic Zone Management Committee, in the first half of this year, pilot enterprises of cross-border e-commerce sales of pharmaceutical products completed 1.167 million orders and achieved sales of 112 million yuan of pharmaceutical products.
Fast customs clearance for imported biological products
Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone is the most important gathering place for the import of human vaccines in China. Recently, Keyuan Xinhai (Beijing) Medical Supplies Trading Co., Ltd., an enterprise in the park, successfully completed the sampling and labeling process for the import of biological products for drug inspection in just 1.5 hours, importing more than 240,000 13-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccines from Ireland.
"It used to take 24 hours, but now we can apply for visas and get them reviewed without leaving the park. Such convenient and efficient service saves companies a lot of time and manpower costs." said a relevant person in charge of Keyuan Xinhai (Beijing) Medical Supplies Trading Co., Ltd.
Why has the time for drug testing sampling been greatly reduced? The reason is that the Capital Airport Linkong Economic Zone Management Committee and the regulatory service department have established a green channel for the inspection of imported biological products, creating a new model of "legal inspection and batch release of imported biological products at ports" in China.
At the beginning of 2023, the China Food and Drug Inspection Institute guided the park staff to carry out the inspection of imported biological products and continuously optimize services. This model realizes the one-stop service of accepting and accepting inspections in advance, sampling and labeling in the sample library, and directly delivering samples to the inspection department.
Data show that from January to June 2024, enterprises in the park imported 47 varieties of biological products, including 8 vaccines, with the value of vaccine customs clearance reaching 22.374 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.27%, and the efficiency of customs clearance inspection has been greatly improved.
"We will use institutional innovation and policy pilots to better develop the pharmaceutical and health industry, serve society and benefit the people." A relevant person in charge of the Capital Airport Airside Economic Zone Management Committee said that the next step will be to take the construction of the Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone Rare Disease Drug Security Pilot Zone as an opportunity to further consolidate the function of the main port for national pharmaceutical trade, promote trade advantages to extend to production, research and development, services and other links, and create a cross-border pharmaceutical and health industry cluster integrating research and development, manufacturing, trade, diagnosis and treatment.
