China will revise its national essential drug list this year to better meet people's pharmaceutical demands, a health official said on July 3.

Vice Minister of Health Yin Li told a national meeting that the number of drugs in the current list was relatively small and its structure was "unreasonable."

Yin admitted that the comprehensive evaluation for drug purchasing in China lacked unified standards, and vicious competition had led to shortages of some low-priced drugs. "There is also a shortage of pharmaceutical professionals at the primary level and the drugs' reimbursement rate is relatively low," he said.

The World Health Organization's essential drugs list has 358 categories, whereas China's latest version, updated in 2009, has only 205.