May 30 Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has told vendors on its Tmall website to stop selling medicine, saying a local regulator has issued an "urgent" directive halting drug sales via third-party platform. Alibaba, in a notice dated May 27 seen by Reuters, cited a circular from the Hebei province branch of the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) on "urgent control measures relating to drug products". It did not elaborate on reasons. The regulator's surprise directive comes as the government promotes retail sales of over-the-counter (OTC) medicine, with a pledge to harness technology to solve issues as varied as high drug prices and snarling hospital queues. At present, drug sales are dominated by public hospitals. The directive only applies to drug sales on marketplace websites, Alibaba said. Such sites, however, generally provide the bulk of traffic to pharmacies and drugmakers selling online.
