This is a linkpost for /r/discussion/lw/nzi/80_of_data_in_chinese_clinical_trials_have_been/
The Chinese used to be very lax about approving medicine. They changed and decided to have higher standards that declare 80% of the medicine to be bad. This means that in the future Chinese companies that want to get new drugs on the market have to do things differently.
But if you declare >80% of local medicine bad
They are declare >80% of "1,622 clinical trials for new pharmaceutical drugs currently awaiting approval" to be bad. That doesn't mean that they take existing drugs off the market.
I'm confused, and I don't think I'm seeing the whole picture.
It's difficult to see the whole picture because the "journalists" don't really care to investigate what's happening and the information is only available between the lines. Currently there's likely strong back-door fighting going on in China.
I'm not sure to what extend this affects the approval of Big Pharma drugs that have FDA approvals. The article unfortunately doesn't speak about it.
Over the long-term it's likely a goal of the Chinese government to raise their quality standards in a way that China can export drugs to the West.
They are declare >80% of "1,622 clinical trials for new pharmaceutical drugs currently awaiting approval" to be bad. That doesn't mean that they take existing drugs off the market.
One problem is that consumers might decide >80% of all previously approved drugs are bad, but they don't know which, so they can't trust any of them. Chinese pharma revenues will drop as everyone who can will use drugs imported from abroad. Gray markets providing bulk medicine imports will flourish, but the buyers who can afford to use them should beware of fraudulent merchandise and of plain misunderstandings and mistranslations.