The person in charge of the Consumer Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce interprets the "Opinions on Promoting High Quality Development of the Pharmaceutical Retail Industry"

Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and nine other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Promoting the High Quality Development of the Pharmaceutical Retail Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). The relevant person in charge of the Consumer Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce interpreted the "Opinions".

1、 Background of the issuance of the Opinion

The pharmaceutical retail industry is an important component of the national healthcare industry. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, the scale of China's pharmaceutical circulation market continued to expand, with annual sales increasing from 2.41 trillion yuan in 2020 to 2.95 trillion yuan in 2024, a growth of 22.4%. The industry structure continues to optimize, and the sales proportion of the top 100 pharmaceutical wholesale and retail enterprises has increased by 2.3 and 2.8 percentage points respectively. The service capability has been significantly enhanced, and chain pharmacies and pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms have vigorously expanded their business in health management, specialty drug services, patient education consultation, 24-hour consultation and drug purchase.

At present, China's pharmaceutical retail industry is in a critical period of innovation and transformation. It needs to promote its transformation from traditional drug sales to comprehensive health services, strengthen its functions of professional services, health promotion, and emergency supply guarantee, and build it into a "health station" that is close to the community and serves the people, enhancing the resilience and accessibility of the national health security system.

2、 The overall idea and main content of the Opinion

The Opinion proposes five key measures. One is to improve pharmaceutical services, promote the transformation of pharmacies from "drug sales terminals" to "health service stations" through comprehensive measures such as supporting pharmacies to enhance their pharmaceutical service capabilities, optimizing the drug purchasing experience, participating in centralized drug procurement, and building a payment guarantee system. The second is to innovate health services, by expanding the health service functions of retail pharmacies, improving the health service experience, enriching the retail format of drugs, optimizing the product service experience, and assisting in the upgrading of pharmaceutical products, further strengthening the health service function positioning of retail pharmacies, and better serving the medical and health needs of the people. The third is to strengthen emergency services, by enhancing the service capabilities of retail pharmacies in emergency supply and strengthening public support for drug emergency supply, strengthening drug supply and medication guidance in case of emergencies, and creating a terminal network for drug supply. The fourth is to optimize the industry structure, by supporting the merger and reorganization of retail pharmacies, encouraging the integration of wholesale and retail development, and optimizing the drug marketing system, in order to achieve the goal of improving the efficiency of the industry supply chain. The fifth is to standardize industry order, maintain market order, promote honest operation and healthy development of the industry through measures such as developing intelligent supervision, promoting fair competition in the industry, and strengthening industry self-discipline.

Next, the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to improve the working mechanism, strengthen communication and coordination, guide localities to accelerate the implementation of various measures in the Opinions, promote the high-quality development of the pharmaceutical retail industry, and better meet the health needs of the people.