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Administration of the Pharmaceutical, Research, Public Health, and Population Bureaucracies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

David M. Lampton
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Extract

During my brief stay in the People's Republic of China I sought to obtain systematic and reliable information which would enable me to begin to answer the following questions: (1) How are decisions about drug safety, distribution, production levels, and price made and what have been the implicit or explicit trade-offs? (2) How do the pharmaceutical, research, public health, and population bureaucracies interrelate, how is inter-agency co-ordination achieved, and what have been the successes and problems encountered in this regard? (3) How are decisions made to initiate and discontinue research? (4) How extensive has decentralization of drug research and pharmaceutical production become in the post-Cultural Revolution period? If decentralization has occurred, what tangible consequences has it had? (5) What mechanisms exist to assure public health and environmental quality and what problems have arisen in the process of trying to achieve results in these areas? While there is much that I was unable to learn, if for no other reason than I had no opportunity to meet with relevant government officials, I was able to learn a great deal from the factory managers, researchers, doctors, and administrators with whom I spoke.

Type
Report from China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 74 , June 1978 , pp. 385 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1978

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References

* The Steroid Chemistry and Biochemistry Delegation representing the Committee on Scholarly Communications with the People's Republic of China was in China from 10–29 October 1976. We visited research institutes, pharmaceutical factories, hospitals, and medical schools to learn about the production, testing, distribution, and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals in China, especially steroid products. During our stays in Peking, Kweilin, Canton, and Shanghai we learned a great deal about these subjects and found our Chinese hosts particularly responsive in the wake of the purge of the “gang of four.” I would like to thank all of the individuals associated with the Committee on Scholarly Communications for their work, especially Ms Pat Tsuchitani. The views and observations contained in this report are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Committee or other members of the delegation. This report is my contribution to the delegation's trip report distributed by the National Academy of Sciences.

1. Carl, Djerassi, “Some observations on current fertility control in China,” The China Quarterly (CQ), No. 57 (1974), pp. 52–53.Google Scholar

2. Ku, Chih-pinget al., “Pharmacological studies of a contraceptive drug Anordrin,” Scientia Sinica, Vol. 18, No. 2 (1975), pp. 261–70.Google Scholar

3. I was told this at the International Women's and Child Peace Hospital, Shanghai, 25 October 1976.Google Scholar

4. Ku Chih-ping et al., “Pharmacological studies,” p. 270.Google Scholar

5. I was told this at the Institute of Materia Medica in Peking, 13 October 1976.Google Scholar

6. I was told this at the Shanghai Scientific Exchange Station, 27 October 1976.Google Scholar

7. Kweichou jih-pao (Kweichow Daily), 29 July 1956.Google Scholar

8. This may only apply to this industry. For a discussion of the possible importance of retained profits in the 1950s see, Audrey, Donnithorne, “Comment: centralization and decentralization in China's fiscal management,” CQ, No. 66 (1976), pp. 333–34.Google Scholar

9. David M., Lampton, The Politics of Medicine in China: The Policy Process, 1944–1977 (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1977), p. 166.Google Scholar

10. Susan, S. Nunn, “Research institutes in the People's Republic of China,” U.S.–China Business Review (March–April 1976), p. 42.Google ScholarFor a smaller and more authoritative list see, “China exchange newsletter,” Vol. 3, No. 5 (November 1975), p. 3.Google Scholar

11. This is not to suggest, however, that bureaucratic participants are indifferent to the outcomes of decisions. Many factors, besides economic stake, may give an organizational actor a perceived stake in an outcome.Google Scholar

12. London, Reuters, in English, 22 September 1974, in Foreign Broadcast Information Service: People's Republic of China (FBIS: PRC), No. 185 (1974), p. E–8.Google Scholar

13. This rate may well be too low for two reasons: first, because infants leave the hospital after five to seven days, deaths which occur after that time may be under-reported; secondly, a Chinese official was recently quoted by Agence France Presse as saying that he was uncertain what China's population was because there is a system-wide under-reporting of deaths. Provinces, he said, wanted to obtain the “best possible” rations of rice, clothing and other goods and they had “a tendency” to record births and be more “discreet” about deaths. FBIS: PRC, No. 214 (1976), p. E–15.Google Scholar

14. Charles, P. Ridley, China's Scientific Policies: Implications for International Cooperation (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1976), pp. 57–58.Google Scholar

15. In fact, it would appear that environment still takes a back seat to economic growth, when the two come into conflict. For more on official Chinese statements in this regard see, Kieran, Broadbent, “Agriculture, environment and current policy in China,” Asian Survey, Vol. 16, No. 5 (1976), pp. 411–26.Google Scholar