Distribution
The Chinese pharmaceutical distribution sector is very fragmented with about 10,000+ state-owned pharmaceutical wholesalers. Direct marketing to doctors (detailing), which is the basic marketing activity in developed countries, complemented by advertising, is not developed in China. Chinese hospitals generate 60 percent of their revenues from the sale of prescription drugs. Hospital pharmacies are still the main retail outlets for pharmaceuticals, accounting for 80 percent of total drug sales. This situation is changing because the government is encouraging the establishment of retail pharmacies that are not associated with hospitals.
Drugs are distributed in China through the Chinese-style channels. China has a three tiered distribution system. At the top of the ladder are national level-1 stations in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Guangzhou, and Tianjin. These allocate products to provincial level-2 distributors, who in turn sell to county and city level-3 wholesaler-drug stores. At the bottom of the distribution chain are China's vast numbers of small retail stores are difficult to reach individually.
Read more about this topic: Pharmaceutical Industry In The People's Republic Of China
Famous quotes containing the word distribution:
“In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“My topic for Army reunions ... this summer: How to prepare for war in time of peace. Not by fortifications, by navies, or by standing armies. But by policies which will add to the happiness and the comfort of all our people and which will tend to the distribution of intelligence [and] wealth equally among all. Our strength is a contented and intelligent community.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The question for the country now is how to secure a more equal distribution of property among the people. There can be no republican institutions with vast masses of property permanently in a few hands, and large masses of voters without property.... Let no man get by inheritance, or by will, more than will produce at four per cent interest an income ... of fifteen thousand dollars] per year, or an estate of five hundred thousand dollars.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)