The National Medical Products Administration ("NMPA") has recently issued the Action Plan for Accelerating Smart Drug Regulation (the "Plan").
The Plan expressly states that efforts will be made to develop the drug regulation cloud, remove physical barriers between different systems, and make it possible to share resources, adding that network resources, including internet and national e-government websites, will be deployed comprehensively to build a sole drug regulation network. Also, the Plan calls for efforts to formulate the standards for information application, and norms for drug regulation and accelerate the integration of regulatory data, including policies, regulations and administrative approval. A coordinated and efficient application platform for three major business, including drugs, medical devices and cosmetics, will be established. In addition, the "internet plus government affairs" platform will be developed to constantly deepen the reform of "delegating power, strengthening administration and improving services". Moreover, "internet plus" information technology approaches will be adopted to set up online service portals for government affairs, which will make it possible to deal with government affairs relating to drug regulation online. Furthermore, the Plan requires that the NMPA shall develop a management system for information application projects, have such projects undertaken by its internal departments and agencies directly affiliated to it registered one by one in such system and supervise these projects from the beginning to the end. Also, efforts in smart regulation will be a part of the assessment system for local regulatory performance.