The General Office of the State Council has recently distributed the Opinions on Building Professionalized and Specialized Teams of Drug Inspectors (the "Opinions").
The Opinions state that the drug regulatory authority of the State Council and provincial drug regulators will essentially accomplish the task of building the framework for the professionalized and specialized drug inspection team system at their respective level, by the end of 2020, and will create a system of professionalized and specialized teams of drug inspectors that is essentially adequate to satisfy the regulatory requirements for drugs and form a work system on supervisory checks of drugs that features definite power and responsibilities, smooth collaboration and full coverage, in three to five more years. To this end, the Opinions map out measures in five aspects, including: 1. improving the systems and mechanisms for drug inspections; 2. ensuring the staffing of inspection teams; 3. reinforcing management of teams of drug inspectors; 4. constantly enhancing the capacity and quality of drug inspectors; and 5. developing an incentive and restraint mechanism. Among others, the Opinions require that professionalized and specialized drug inspectors will be subject to level-based classified management, adding that strict criteria of job threshold and qualifications will be set and a scientific and reasonable mechanism will be established for their assessment and demotion/promotion.