The National Health Commission has released a list of suggested generic drugs to treat serious diseases including AIDS and leukemia.

Twelve departments and ministries including the National Health Commission jointly issued a work plan of accelerating the supply and use of generic drugs in April 2018. The plan required the release of the first generic drug catalogue before the end of June this year to lead pharmaceutical companies' research and development, registration and production, and promote the use of generic drugs.

Generic drugs refer to pharmaceutical drugs that contain the same chemicals as original drugs protected by patents, which is equivalent to the brand-name product in dosage, strength, route of administration, quality, performance and intended use. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire, which means they are cheap compared with the brand-name drugs.

The document encourages pharmaceutical enterprises to develop generic drugs with definite therapeutic effects that are necessary in clinical application and are in a short supply. They are encouraged to develop generic drugs for serious infectious diseases and rare diseases and pediatric drugs, in order to promote supply side structural reform in the pharmaceutical industry, reduce cost of medical treatment for serious diseases and guarantee the supply of pharmaceutical drugs.