The National Medical Products Administration ("NMPA") and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security ("MOHRSS") have recently issued the Provisions on the Professional Qualification System for Practicing Pharmacists (the "Provisions") and the Implementing Measures for the Professional Qualification Examination for Practicing Pharmacists (the "Measures"), both of which have taken effect immediately from the date of issuance.
Changes in five respects are brought by the Provisions and the Measures. First, the entry threshold concerning educational background of practicing pharmacists is raised by adjusting the minimum educational background standard to require a junior college degree, and the required length of working years an examinee has taken up posts related to pharmacy or traditional Chinese pharmacology is extended. Second, the information-based management will be adopted during the national registration of practicing pharmacists, and credit records will be formed for pharmacists practicing medicine. Third, disciplinary measures to be taken against practicing pharmacists and entities where they practice medicine are made clear to address certain tough issues, such as the absence of in-service practicing pharmacists in their posts and the illegal lending of the Practicing Pharmacist Registration Certificates; a practicing pharmacist with negative credit records will face restrictions when he or she applies for registration. Fourth, efforts at the effective linkage between the professional qualification system for practicing pharmacists and the medium-grade professional title system for practitioners majored in pharmacy are made more feasible. Fifth, it is clearly stated that residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan will be treated in the same way as any other mainlander when they sit the national qualification examination for practicing pharmacists, handle the registration and practice medicine. And sixth, the previous two-year examination cycle is adjusted to be four years.