The model is so convoluted and involves so many people that pinpointing exact problems is nearly impossible. Ye Hongshan, a doctor in his 70s at the Road Hospital in Sichuan province, has been working as a doctor for many many years. A pharmaceutical producer makes the pill. Medicine companies, including large, small, state-owned and private companies, sell the pill first on a wholesale basis and then as a distributor. Next are drug stores, which sell the pill on a retail basis.
Hospitals are also retailers.
The amount of medicine they sell accounts for the majority of all medicine sold to consumers. The economic and trade commissions at various government levels are the government authorities that plan and administer the pharmaceutical industry. Pricing bureaus at various levels of government are responsible for administering prices for medicines together with development planning commissions at various levels of government . Other government departments involved in the distribution of medicine include the public health bureau, the industrial and commercial administration and taxation bureaus. However, the involvement of so many government authorities does not, in and of itself, attest to the uniqueness of medicine as a commodity.