Analysis of the Future Development Trends of Medical Devices in China

CFDA focuses on the reform thinking of the pharmaceutical e-commerce industry, liberating the mind, streamlining administration and delegating power, standardizing and orderly, and promoting justice and eliminating evil. Industry insiders predict that the era of great development of pharmaceutical e-commerce is coming, which will definitely make the industry feel excited.
Recently, the State Food and Drug Administration is conducting research on the revision of China's pharmaceutical e-commerce policies and regulations. Although it is currently only a small area, the information disclosed by the Administration is promoting the development of pharmaceutical e-commerce with a very open attitude.

The terms and some pre approval terms that only chain pharmacies can apply for online trading qualifications may be changed, and under the principle of classified management, medical devices may be able to apply independently for B2C e-commerce business.

The senior management of CFDA stated that the development trend of pharmaceutical e-commerce cannot be stopped, and professional development is inevitable. It should be "combined with dredging and focusing on dredging", and "by supporting more standardized operators, we can crack down on illegal operators.

As early as October 8, 2005, the "Interim Provisions on the Approval of Internet Drug Trading Services" classified the e-commerce of pharmaceutical enterprises into three types. Among them, enterprises providing internet drug trading services to individual consumers should be "legally established drug chain retail enterprises".

Due to the high threshold, only over 100 online pharmacies have been approved in the past eight years. Enterprises operating medical devices alone cannot apply for device e-commerce qualifications, and many have only been approved in the past two years, which has to some extent affected the development process of the pharmaceutical e-commerce industry.

An important aspect of CFDA research is to lower the approval threshold for online pharmacies. The terms that only chain pharmacies can establish online pharmacies are highly likely to be modified or cancelled.

In the future, whether individual pharmacies, or even other institutions or individuals, which account for over two-thirds of the total number of pharmacies, can open online pharmacies to engage in legitimate pharmaceutical e-commerce business, is highly anticipated. The research also focuses on whether to list medical devices separately in the future, and whether medical device enterprises can independently apply for online trading qualifications to promote the great development of medical device e-commerce.

According to the 2005 regulations, "Internet drug trading services" refer to e-commerce activities that provide drug trading services through the Internet. This means that "drugs" include medical devices, packaging materials and containers that come into direct contact with drugs. Medical devices cannot independently apply for online transactions.

In fact, in the development process of online pharmacies in recent years, some larger ones have not focused on drugs as their main products, but instead rely mainly on selling family planning products or household medical devices.

As a mature industry, the commercialization of medical devices in this field is also an inevitable trend. From the trend of "vigorously promoting the development of medical device e-commerce" in the research and soliciting opinions on whether to apply separately, it shows CFDA's open-minded, pragmatic, and forward-looking thinking attitude in the development of e-commerce.