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 Under the previous law, such drugs were classified as "fake drugs".
Those caught importing unapproved medicines were considered drug
smugglers and faced heavy penalties.
The change is part of wider revisions to drugs laws and authorities
said it recognized how some Chinese, unable to afford expensive
foreign-made, brand-name drugs, were turning to the grey market to
buy cheaper generic versions that had not been approved by local
regulators.
The issue was highlighted last year by the movie "Dying To Survive",
which was based on the real-life case of a Chinese leukemia patient
who was jailed for smuggling cheaper alternatives from India to a
treatment by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.
The movie stirred intense online debate over the efficiency of
China's healthcare system and prompted China's leaders to call for
action.
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"I think it is definitely a response to society's concern over the
issue," said Yuan Jie, an official at the Legislative Affairs
Commission of the standing committee of National People's Congress
at a press conference on Monday when asked about the change in the
law.
Beijing has been trying to reduce out-of-pocket costs for drugs,
including cancer treatments. It has put more medicines on its
national medical insurance schemes and cut import tariffs, for
example.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Brenda Goh, Additional reporting by
Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Neil Fullick)
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