Unified Code Name System for Drugs Set for Year-end Launch (China)
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Wang Jinxia, vice chairman of the China Association of Pharmaceutical Commerce, says that China will launch a long-awaited unified code name system in the pharmaceutical industry as soon as the end of 2007. Wang is one of three people responsible for drafting the system. All drugs in China will be included in the new system and each medicine will be given a code name for wide recognition and digital management. "Everything is ready (for the system) and it only needs government bureaus' approval," Wang said during a Sinopharm Medicine Holdings Co. event to adopt a new IT system. Previously, drugs in China were written in Chinese, English, Latin or just numbers, lacking a unified code name system. Preparations for the system were first undertaken in 1997 but implementation has been delayed due to bureaucratic infighting over control of the system. (Click here for more