In October 2015, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Several Opinions on Advancing Pricing Mechanism Reform. As the Opinions clearly state, China will generally lift price controls over all goods and services in competitive sectors by 2017. In the pharmaceutical field, pricing mechanism reform has always been both widely watched and controversial. In May 2015, seven ministries jointly issued Opinions on Promoting Drug Pricing Reform, abolishing the separate pricing mechanism for branded drugs. This started a new round of drug pricing reform.
