Recent media reports have suggested that supplies of some low-price yet crucial medicines have run out nationwide. Some patients have even had to postpone surgery until hospitals can get the medicines they need.

According to professionals in the pharmaceutical industry, dozens of cheap medicines disappear from the domestic market every year, which not only increases the economic burden on patients, it also undermines their health.

To guarantee the supply of high-quality, low-price essential medicines, the then Ministry of Health issued guidelines for building a national essential medicine system in 2009. The medicines on the list are covered by the basic medical insurance, thus their prices are controlled by the authorities.

According to official statistics, under the essential medicine system the purchase price of the essential medicines is 30 percent lower on average than before.

However, once a medicine is classed as an essential medicine, pharmaceutical manufacturers lose the motivation to produce them because of the low profits. This eventually results in shortages.

Media reports are urging this problem be solved by further medical reform in order to guarantee patients' interests.