National Health Commission: Will establish a collaborative monitoring mechanism to further improve the level of guarantee for the supply of scarce drugs.

Gong Xiangguang, director of the Drug Policy and Essential Drug System of the National Health Commission, introduced that the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the issue of drug shortages. In recent years, a series of policy measures have been taken, which has greatly alleviated the phenomenon of drug shortages in China, ensuring basic guarantees for patients' clinical urgent drug needs. On the one hand, the role of the national coordination mechanism is fully utilized. The country has established a shortage drug supply guarantee working mechanism led by the National Health Commission and composed of multiple departments. It has formed a national coordinated, information gathering, hierarchical verification, graded response, and inter-departmental linkage work system. In terms of dealing with shortages of drugs, we have established a "four-level response" system at the national, provincial, municipal, and county levels. The results of the past three years show that the response rates at the local three levels have been maintained at over 96%. The number of varieties that need to be dealt with at the national level has significantly decreased, from 64 in 2021 to 2 in 2025, essentially achieving institutionalized solutions to drug shortages. On the other hand, efforts have been made to strengthen the dynamic adjustment management of the shortage drug list. Shortage drugs are classified into national and provincial lists, with the national list mainly addressing national shortage common problems, and the provincial list having strong regional characteristics, primarily addressing local diseases, with flexible adjustments and quick results in handling.