In November 2001, the Ministry of Health and other agencies promulgated the Working Standards for Centralized Purchasing of Drugs through Tendering for Hospitals (#308) and related documents. These documents establish the following basis for bidding:
(a) Principle of good quality and reasonable price,
(b) Three categories for bidding (on chemical entity, INN)
1. on patent (often interpreted to mean "Chinese "patent)
2. Good Manufacture Practice ("GMP")
3. non-GMP,
(c) Formula whereby quality shall be at least 40% of total score with price factor not less than 50% of quality, business reputation is 15%;
(d) After 2 to 3 rounds of centralized purchasing by bidding for the same drug, a purchasing institution may select other means of centralized purchasing (Article 31).
