Amid heated discussion about the film, Dying to Survive, Premier Li Keqiang has instructed relevant departments to lower the retail price of some imported lifesaving anti-cancer medicines as soon as possible, and ensure the regular supply of the medicines.

China has 4.29 million new cancer patients and 2.81 million people die of cancer each year. Some cancer patients exhaust their savings and even go into debt to buy expensive imported drugs that domestic pharmaceutical companies do not yet have the ability to produce.

Although the central government scrapped the tariffs on some anti-cancer drugs and some other imported medicines that Chinese patients rely on to treat severe diseases from May 1, to the disappointment of patients, as well as Premier Li, the retail prices of most of the medicines have remained unchanged till now.

It means some middlemen, if not institutions, are gaining the benefits of the zero tariff reform rather than patients and their families. That is why the premier has again instructed the distance from the customs to the patients be shortened. However, to make that happen, the government should first overhaul the whole distribution system and retail mechanism for medicines.

As the experiences of many other countries show, the Chinese government must strengthen its bargaining and negotiating position with foreign pharmaceutical companies, which are concerned about profits, not patients.

The Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises, particularly the State-run ones, should concentrate all their research and development on making breakthroughs in anti-cancer treatments, and try their best to produce them at an early date.

And the government should also consider listing these lifesaving medicines in the medical care insurance to subsidize patients, which some better-off local governments have already done.

On average, eight people are diagnosed with cancer every minute in China, and six of them will die of their disease. The relevant departments must waste no time in carrying out Li's instructions.