Price controls will be relaxed over drugs covered by medical insurance, blood products, immunizations, anti-AIDS and birth-control medicines but not narcotics.
![Chinese Government To Lift Long-Standing State Controls On Drug Prices From June 1 Chinese Government To Lift Long-Standing State Controls On Drug Prices From June 1](https://images.medindia.net/health-images/1200_1000/drugs6.jpg)
"The reform of drug prices needs to fully utilize the resource allocation role of the market," the statement said.
Price controls will be relaxed over drugs covered by medical insurance, blood products, immunizations, anti-AIDS and birth-control medicines, the statement said. But controls over prices of what the statement called "narcotics" as well as some psychotropic pharmaceuticals will remain, it said.
China started imposing maximum prices in 2000, but the NDRC said in a separate statement: "Rich market competition as well as stronger market supervision ability over drug prices has created the conditions to cancel the ceiling retail prices for medicine."
China has relaxed price controls in several sectors, including telecommunications, tobacco, air transport, natural gas and electricity.
Source-AFP