Campaign to cut overuse begins to yield results

China's national campaign to crack down on prescription drug abuse appears to be making progress, after figures revealed a drop of 6 percentage points in the use of antibiotics in hospitals from 2008 to 2011.

An annual report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on China's pharmaceutical market showed top-level hospitals in 21 provinces reported antibiotics use dropped from 25 percent in 2008 to 19 percent in 2011.