BEIJING -- China has required the completion of a national vaccine tracking system before March 31, 2020, to enable the whole-process traceability of all vaccines on the market, according to a recent circular.

The circular, jointly issued by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and the National Health Commission, specified the responsibilities of the NMPA, provincial drug regulators, provincial health authorities and authorized manufacturers in building such a system.

The NMPA is working to launch a collaborative service platform, which will be connected with online systems for immunization programs and those for vaccine data, to integrate information of vaccine production, circulation and inoculation, the circular said.

The NMPA and provincial drug regulators will build the national and provincial supervision systems for vaccine traceability, it added.

Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hainan and Chongqing were pilots in building the system, the circular said.

These provincial-level areas were demanded to connect regional vaccine tracking systems with the national collaborative service platform before Dec 31, 2019, and begin to feed the platform information by Jan 31, 2020.