The Asia Times reported that China’s Food and Drug Administration has ordered that from July 1, 2004, people won’t be able to buy antibiotics from pharmacies unless they have a doctor’s prescription. However, a reporter there discovered that this regulation is being ignored in some regions, and many large pharmacies in Anhui Province are still selling antibiotics to people without prescriptions. In many large clinics across Anhui province, physicians are also over-prescribing antibiotics.

Taihe County, a small county situated in the west of Anhui Province, is a famous distribution center for western medicine. The main streets in Taihe are full of pharmacies. Every day, the pharmaceutical distribution centers on Renmin Road are packed with medicine wholesalers from around the country.

According to a local taxi driver, “Taihe is the nation’s largest western medicine distribution center. Many local people got rich through the pharmaceutical industry. The medicine market brought about the prosperity of Taihe that you see today. Look at all the hotels along the streets; they were built for wholesalers from across the country.”

The taxi driver said he knew about the regulation on antibiotic sales that the Food and Drug Administration issued a few days ago. When asked whether it will have an impact on the pharmaceutical market, he said, “No, this regulation is only targeting the retail sales of individual pharmacies. This will of course cause some inconvenience to the consumers, yet wholesales are not likely to be affected.”

However, the taxi driver was obviously worried. The large local pharmacies completely ignored this regulation. When the reporter visited several pharmacies in Taihe County asking for amoxicillin (an antibiotic that the regulation prohibits selling to the public), the employees sold the antibiotic to the reporter without any questions.

The reporter approached a salesman in a large governmental pharmacy in Anhui’s Fuyang city and asked, “Do I need a doctor’s prescription to buy antibiotics here?” The salesman said, “Yes, of course.” When the reporter explained that he was a tourist and had a throat infection, the salesman told him that the regulation was effective from July 2, 2004. After asking if the reporter was allergic to penicillin, he agreed to sell him the medicine. The reporter was also able to buy amoxicillin without any problem in the pharmacy next door.

It’s clear that the nation’s sales regulation can be easily ignored. This happens not only in the cities of the far northeast, but also in Anhui Province’s capital Hefei. In one of Hefei’s big pharmacies, when a reporter said that he would like to buy amoxicillin, the pharmacy’s cashier immediately suggested a box of amoxicillin made in Hong Kong marked with a 37-yuan tag. When the reporter said the price was too high, the cashier said, “This company’s Amoxicillin is more effective, though we also have some that is cheaper.” He then showed the reporter some other brands of amoxicillin to choose from.

China’s Food and Drug Administration’s regulations on the sale of antibiotics are ignored in Anhui. This reporter also visited large hospitals in the cities of Taihe, Fuyang, and Hefei, claiming to have a cold, only to discover that in these hospitals there are still doctors over-prescribing antibiotics.

In Fuyang People’s Hospital, after a doctor listened to the reporter’s symptoms of “dizziness, feeling weak and heavy in the limbs, and having a scratchy throat,” the doctor asked if the reporter has ever been allergic to medications. He replied, “I’m not sure, probably not.” The doctor ignored this ambiguous answer and immediately prescribed three boxes of antibiotics. Another reporter had the same experience in a hospital in Hefei. The doctor asked about his symptoms, and then asked if the reporter has ever eaten penicillin or had any allergic reactions to medication. When the reporter said no, the doctor prescribed a box of Cephradine capsules.

The overuse of antibiotics has been a concern in China for a long time. Statistics show that the percentage of patients hospitalized and given antibiotics is between 50-80 percent. It has far surpassed the worldwide average of 30 percent reported by the World Health Organization. Nearly 20 million Chinese have hearing disabilities caused by the misuse of antibiotics. In response to the antibiotic sales restrictions set by China’s Food and Drug Administration, some people thought that the huge profits that antibiotics bring to cities will mean they won’t implement the regulation. The situation in Anhui shows that this fear is certainly valid.