The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday announced a draft amendment to the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法), that would require drug companies to give the ministry advance warning if stocks are running low on any of 968 “essential” medicines.
According to the WHO, essential drugs are those needed to satisfy the priority healthcare needs of a population.
They should be available for a healthcare system at all times in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality and at a price the individual and the community can afford, the WHO says.
Food and Drug Administration specialist Tsai Shih-chih (蔡士智) said the ministry specified the 968 types of drugs in reference to the WHO’s Model Lists of Essential Medicines and the National Health Insurance Administration’s List of Essential Medicines.
The ministry’s list includes medicine for treating Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and high blood sugar, vaccines and various common diseases.
Starting from yesterday, the ministry is to collect any opinions or suggestions from the public on the amendment, over a period of 14 days.
Once the amendment is implemented, drug companies would be required to give the ministry six months’ advance warning if stocks of any essential medicines are running low, or within one month if the situation is due to a natural disaster or unpredictable accident, so that the ministry can take ad hoc measures to avoid drug shortages.
Companies that fail to report shortages according to the terms of act would face having their names made public for a first violation, and subject to fines of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000 for repeated violations.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
RSS