The Drug Administration Law tasked the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) with establishing unified traceability standards and specifications for drug products. China has since adopted 10 drug traceability standards and specifications to guide relevant parties to jointly build a national Drug Traceability Information System.
The move helps to break down barriers between various independent systems and companies by unifying drug traceability code requirements, standardizing the basic technical requirements for drug traceability systems, defining the content and format of information companies are required to record during the traceability process, and outlining data exchange requirements.
On October 10, 2020, the China National Drug Administration (CNDA) made a public announcement confirming the deadline of December 31, 2020, for the drug market authorization holders to complete the construction of the traceability system and collect traceability information throughout the entire process, for products such as the national drug centralized procurement, narcotic drugs, psychotropic drugs, and blood products.