A new draft revision to China's drug administration law was submitted Thursday to the ongoing bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for deliberation. It proposes new stipulations for better regulation of pharmaceutical sales. Lawmakers held panel discussions on the draft Friday.

People involved in the production and sale of drugs will pay higher costs and face harsher penalties for malfeasance, according to a new draft amendment to China's Drug Administration Law.

The operation of drug retail chains will be encouraged and guided, but enterprise headquarters that run drug retail chains are advised to set up unified systems for quality management and assume management responsibilities for subsidiaries' business activities.

Lawmaker Yang Zhen said, "There is a term 'National Drug Standards' in the draft. We've consulted relevant departments. I think it's too vague. We should give more precise explanations."

The draft amendment also attaches legal responsibilities to other behaviors, such as pharmaceutical companies failing to follow regulations to monitor the side effects of drugs, and e-commerce platforms failing to perform duties such as screening the qualifications of drug sellers.

Online sales of drugs shall abide by relevant stipulations on the drug sales proposed in the draft, it says, adding that vaccines, blood products, anesthetics, radioactive drugs and other drugs under special administration shall not be sold online.

Lawmaker Xu Rujun suggests the draft should add expired medicines to the list of fake drugs.

Specific regulations on online drug sales will be formulated by pharmaceutical and health authorities of the State Council, according to the draft.

It will be put to vote on Monday.