China's food and drug safety watchdog plans to add imported drugs on the national electronic monitoring network in a move to step up drug management.

Overseas pharmaceutical companies and their designated agents in China will have to apply to be covered by the network and get relevant cipher keys, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said in a draft regulation.

The electronic network was designed to monitor the entire process of manufacturing, transportation, storage and the sale of drugs. The move will also enable realtime inquiries into inventories and destinations, according to Wang Yingli, chief of the SFDA Information Planning Office.

By assigning each package of medicine a 20-digit unique code, the administration can use the network to track and recall drugs, Wang said.

The electronic monitoring network was initiated in 2006. By November 2008, the government had incorporated into the network narcotic drugs, blood products, vaccines, important injections, and some psychiatric drugs.

By February this year, all drugs that were on the country's essential drug list had been covered by the network, according to the SFDA.