On the morning of May 16, the opening ceremony of the 24th National Member Congress of CPA was held in Beijing. Bi Jingquan, director general of CFDA attended the opening ceremony and made a speech.
Bi Jingquan pointed out that the Party Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to drug regulation. President Xi Jinping repeatedly emphasized that the most stringent standards, the most stringent regulation, the most severe punishment, the most serious accountability should be implemented to ensure the safe and effective medication for the people. Premier Li Keqiang repeatedly pointed out that the safety of food from farmland to dinner table, from laboratory to hospital should be strictly controlled to provide safe food to the people. After nearly 40 years of reform and opening-up development, the pharmaceutical industry gains rapid growth in China, with gradually improved drug regulation and drug accessibility, and satisfied public prevention, diagnosis, treatment medications provision. However, China is facing a typical supply-side problem of insufficient medicine development and innovation, low-level repetition in pharmacy, and difference in medicine quality. It is imperative to encourage the development and innovation of medicine and improve the quality of made-in-China medicines, and there is a rare opportunity. On one hand, China is implementing innovation-driven development strategy, which is beneficial to the overall situation of medical innovation and attracts increasing research input from enterprises. On the other hand, the reform of drug examination and approval system goes well, the regulatory system is being compatible with the international system, and the institutional environment for development and innovation is being improved.
Bi Jingquan stressed that we should gain insight into the strategic thinking of President Xi Jinping on innovative development, insist on the development idea of innovation, coordination, green, open and sharing, take innovation as the leading power of development, establish the ideology of “highlighting innovation is to guarantee health, promote development and ensure long-term development”, base the drug quality improvement on innovation, intensify the reform of drug examination and approval system, motivate the innovative development of medicine industry, drive the transformation and upgrade of medicine industry and structural reform of the supply side, assure the medication demand of the public and accelerate the development of health in China.
Bi Jingquan said, Chinese Pharmaceutical Association (CPA) is an academic body with significant influence in the pharmaceutical field in China and contributes a lot to the healthy development of the medicine industry, it is expected to continue the bridge role between the Party and Government and pharmacy workers to create an innovation atmosphere and facilitate the innovation development. Enterprise is the subject of innovation and talent is the foundation of innovation. The pharmacy enterprises are expected to increase the investment in R&D, attracting talents to innovation and entrepreneurship to develop more new and effective drugs to assure the medication demands of the public.
The opening ceremony was presided by Sun Xianze, deputy director general of CFDA & vice chairman of CPA. Academician Sang Guowei, chairman of CPA, Xiang Changle, Secretary of the Secretariat of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), Major General Liu Dianrong, deputy director of CMC Logistical Support Department Health Bureau and over 400 members of CPA attended the opening ceremony.
