New drugs for key diseases added: What's new in the updated National Essential Medicines List →
en.Wedoany.com Reported - The National Essential Medicines List (2026 Edition) took effect today (September 1). The new list brings the total number of medicines to 794, adding 116 new varieties.
Essential medicines refer to the most important, basic, indispensable drugs that meet the essential needs of the public. The national essential medicines system is a framework that implements full-process, priority management across all stages of essential medicines, including selection, production, distribution, use, reimbursement, and monitoring. Under this system, public medical institutions are required to fully stock and prioritize the use of essential medicines, while aligning with policies such as hierarchical diagnosis and treatment and medical insurance incentives to reduce the public's medication burden.
The new list focuses on key diseases with high incidence rates, expanding the range of medicines to improve treatment suitability for patients. Highlights include:
Five new diabetes medications and four new hypertension medications have been added, offering patients more treatment options.
Seven new drugs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and eight for gastrointestinal diseases have been added.
In addition, four domestically developed Class I innovative drugs have been newly included, giving the public more choices in medication.
Gong Xiangguang, Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Policy at the National Health Commission, revealed that the newly added medicines for chronic and common diseases are suitable for deployment across medical institutions at all levels, helping community health service centers, township health centers, village clinics, and other primary-level facilities expand their routine medication offerings to better meet the public's need for convenient, nearby access to medical care and medicines.
Gong Xiangguang, Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Policy, National Health Commission: Preliminary estimates show that the medicines on the new list account for 71% of the total variety of drugs used in public medical and health institutions nationwide. Among these, essential medicines account for 78% of usage at primary-level institutions, 74% at secondary-level institutions, and 65% at tertiary-level public institutions, fully reflecting the important role of essential medicines in clinical practice and their widespread, universal use.
The new list also strengthens the accessibility of pediatric medicines, adding five child-specific drugs, including a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents. Additionally, 26 medicines have been supplemented with pediatric dosage forms alongside their existing adult formulations. Zhang Jian, Director of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at Xinhua Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, noted that beyond increasing the number of pediatric drugs, the list also emphasizes the addition of dosage forms and specifications suitable for children, aiming to resolve the problem of "splitting and guessing adult doses for children":
Zhang Jian, Director of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University: The number of varieties with clear pediatric usage and dosage instructions in the new essential medicines list has increased to 317, including 22 child-specific drugs. Among the adjusted dosage forms and specifications for retained medicines from the original list, child-friendly formulations such as granules, oral solutions, and suspensions have been added. The number of specifications suitable for children in the new list has also grown to 905, addressing key challenges in pediatric medication usage and dosing.
The essential medicines list also incorporates drugs for public health prevention and treatment, such as tuberculosis medications, including all 26 drugs specified in the National Technical Guidelines for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control. Medical institutions can now stock these drugs in accordance with the list, which is expected to effectively address the previous problem faced by primary-level institutions of "having technical guidelines but no available medicines."
The National Health Commission has clarified that public medical and health institutions at all levels must complete the update and adjustment of their drug supply catalogs within two months of the new list taking effect. What progress have primary-level institutions made so far in stocking these medicines? And how will the inclusion of more high-quality drugs in the essential medicines list benefit the public seeking care at the grassroots level?
During the implementation of the previous national essential medicines list, some issues emerged, including incomplete coverage of listed varieties in certain institutions and inconsistencies and discontinuities in medication use between primary-level facilities and top-tier tertiary hospitals.
The National Health Commission previously issued a notice on ensuring the prioritized deployment and use of essential medicines, requiring public medical and health institutions at all levels to specify implementation down to generic names, dosage forms, and specifications, adhere to the principle of active and standardized deployment, and prioritize the stocking of essential medicines. Lu Haifeng, Director of the Maqiao Community Health Service Center in Minhang District, Shanghai, said that they have already completed preliminary adjustments to the medicines included in the list based on the disease spectrum of patients in their area.
Lu Haifeng, Director of the Maqiao Community Health Service Center, Minhang District, Shanghai: First, we aim to include all eligible medicines, and second, we consider people's livelihoods to make it convenient for residents to get their medications, allowing them to obtain cost-effective essential medicines they need at nearby community health service centers. Based on the disease spectrum of our jurisdiction and the long-term medication needs of chronic disease patients, we have increased our offerings from 628 varieties in 2025 to 679. We have also introduced domestically developed innovative drugs with high clinical value, breaking the previous impression that essential medicines are mostly low-cost generic drugs. Some high-profile products that have drawn public attention, such as bevacizumab, have also been included.
The National Health Commission stated that local health administrative departments should also guide medical institutions in their jurisdictions to improve the evaluation mechanism for drug supply catalogs, optimize medication structures, and promote alignment in medication use between higher- and lower-level institutions. Efforts should be strengthened to unify medication catalog management within compact medical consortia. Lu Haifeng revealed that, in response to prominent pain points such as medication interruptions after referral of chronic disease patients, mismatches between drug catalogs at different levels, and difficulties in continuing treatment plans, they have worked with higher-level hospitals within the medical consortium to establish a primary-level medication linkage system featuring coordinated catalogs, shared information, continuous prescriptions, collaborative pharmaceutical services, and a closed-loop guarantee, so that the range of medicines available at their doorstep will continue to expand.
Lu Haifeng: Leveraging the compact urban medical consortium, Minhang has built a cloud pharmacy management system. We have developed a unified medication linkage list for chronic diseases, forming a diversified medication supply model with community pharmacies as the mainstay, extended prescriptions as a supplement, and internet-based dispensing as an additional channel. The number of chronic disease linkage medications at our center has expanded from 287 to 372 varieties, and the matching rate of generic names for chronic disease drugs between higher- and lower-level hospitals has risen from 76.2% to 89.5%. At the same time, we conduct dynamic evaluations of these catalogs and update them in a timely manner. The utilization rate of essential medicines and the alignment of medication linkage have been incorporated into the performance assessments of our community health service center, reinforcing accountability for implementing the essential medicines list. We have established a normalized support system for upward and downward collaboration, enhancing the capabilities of our community general practitioners and pharmacists in assessing long-term treatment plans, identifying adverse drug reactions, and making individualized dose adjustments through mentorship programs, joint pharmaceutical outpatient clinics, medication training, and case consultations.
The National Health Commission has called for deepening the monitoring of drug use and the management of comprehensive clinical evaluations. Leveraging real-world clinical data, comprehensive evaluations of essential medicines should be conducted around effectiveness, safety, economy, and innovation to achieve precise and rational use of essential medicines and continuously improve pharmaceutical service capabilities.
Gong Xiangguang: We will organize more comprehensive clinical evaluations of drugs with a focus on essential medicines, providing technical support for medical institutions in drug catalog selection, clinical medication pathway development, standardized and precise prescribing, drug injury risk prevention, and pharmaceutical services. We hope that manufacturers of essential medicines will proactively strengthen technological progress and transformation, enhance production and supply capacity, ensure drug quality, and guarantee stable supply.
