On September 11, JD Health's "Expired Drug Recycling" public welfare project was officially launched. As a responsible new medical and health service enterprise, in the field of drug supply chain, JD Health has formed a set of mature and perfect full-chain management mechanism, this public welfare project, JD Health will have its own expired drug destruction and processing capacity to the outside world, is committed to achieving large-scale application, providing safe drug use guarantee for a wider range of people, and effectively carrying out ecological and environmental protection work.
In the future, users who have expired drugs at home can search for "expired drug recycling" through the JD APP, and after submitting the relevant information, there will be JD Brother to pick up the medicine, and JD Health will destroy these expired drugs.
Jin Enlin, CEO of JD Health, said that the "Expired Drug Recycling" public welfare project has multiple meanings such as ecological environmental protection, social responsibility, and safe drug education, and is also the latest exploration and practice of JD Health to integrate and open up the public welfare experience accumulated over the years and mature business capabilities.
Who will meet the demand for "expired drug recall"?
In daily life, every family will stock up on some commonly used medicines in case of emergency. However, due to various reasons such as "forgetting to eat", "not using it", and "reluctant to throw it away", many drugs are easy to expire. According to relevant data, the number of expired drugs produced in the mainland every year is staggering, and if these expired drugs are not properly disposed of, they will not only cause pollution to the environment, but also may cause harm to human health through accidental ingestion.
According to a user survey conducted by JD Health, 86% of users have expired medicines at home, and more than 36% of them have more expired medicines at home. Nearly 85% of users choose to throw away their household waste after discovering that their medicines have expired.
Wang Jiawei, chief pharmacist of Beijing Tongren Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, mentioned at the press conference that the expiration date of drugs is not exactly equal to the expiration date of drugs, and many drugs are considered "expired drugs" if they are not taken within a certain period of time after they are opened, such as bottled drugs are recommended to be used up within half a year after opening, and eye drops and eye ointments are recommended to be used up within four weeks after opening.
In April this year, in the "Expired Free Exchange" activity launched by JD Health, nearly 30% of users asked customer service whether they supported the recycling of expired goods that had been opened; In the past year, 20% of the online consultations received by JD Health's licensed pharmacist team were related to "expired drugs".
However, due to the low economic value of the recycling and disposal of expired drugs, and the collection, transfer, preservation and destruction processes require a high degree of professionalism, which cannot be undertaken by a single functional and non-professional organization. Hou Guiguang, director of the comprehensive business department and senior engineer of the Solid Waste and Chemical Management Technology Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, pointed out in his speech at the launch site of the project that to promote the recycling of expired drugs, it is necessary to adhere to the combination of government guidance, social participation and national action
The whole process is visual, compliant and efficient to open up the "last mile" of expired drug recycling
In order to ensure the safety of users' drug use, in December 2023, the National Health Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other five departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Saving Drug Resources and Curbing Drug Waste", which mentions that the collection and destruction of waste drugs should be regulated; In the collection process, on the one hand, strengthen the publicity and guidance of garbage classification and enhance the public's awareness of drug recycling; On the other hand, it is recommended that all localities take incentive measures to actively guide drug production and operation enterprises to carry out waste drug collection activities.
In order to actively respond to the call of national ecological civilization construction, participate in social governance, and contribute to the strength of enterprises, JD Health launched the "Expired Drug Recycling" public welfare project to give full play to its own advantages and capabilities.
According to the person in charge of the comprehensive service department of JD Health, relying on the efficient self-built supply chain operation system covering the whole country, JD Health can ensure the efficient operation of the collection and transfer of expired drugs, reduce the cost of recycling and improve efficiency. The mature and perfect full-chain drug management mechanism also provides a strong guarantee for JD Health in key links such as the transportation, storage and destruction of expired drugs, ensuring the professionalism and compliance of the recall work. At the same time, with a strong e-commerce platform user operation system, JD Health is also able to accurately reach users, stimulate users' enthusiasm for participation through rich incentives, and promote the extensive development of expired drug recall.
Liu Pei, former director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the State Drug Administration, said that at present, government departments at all levels are actively implementing policies around drug circulation, popularization of safe drug use knowledge among the masses, and recall of expired drugs; Some pharmaceutical production and trading enterprises have promoted the safe use of drugs by carrying out public welfare activities for the recall of expired drugs at home. She highly praised JD Health's public welfare recycling project of expired drugs, and believed that JD Health exerts its corporate social responsibility, empowers with new quality productivity, uses Internet technology and logistics capabilities to open up the "last mile" of expired drug recycling, and guides the recycling of expired drugs in a way that people like to see, so as to reduce resource waste and environmental pollution.
Explore the joint construction of a long-term sustainable mechanism for the recall of expired drugs
Whether it is ecological environmental protection or user safety drug protection, it must be persevered, and it requires the joint efforts of the government, enterprises and the public to promote. At this press conference, Jia Feng, former director and chief expert of the Publicity and Education Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and adjunct professor of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering of Peking University, served as the moderator of the roundtable, inviting multiple actors in the expired drug recycling chain to discuss how to establish and improve a long-term expired drug recovery mechanism.
Liu Chunlong, Secretary-General of the China Environmental Protection Foundation, pointed out in the roundtable discussion that in the practice of public welfare for many years, the sustainable development of a public welfare project lies in exploring the establishment of a mechanism for the public to continue to participate in the project, so that the public has a sense of gain and honor, and can be combined with the carbon inclusive model to stimulate the public's enthusiasm for participating in the environmental protection public welfare project of expired drug recycling.
It is understood that this public welfare project JD Health has designed a variety of interactions, which will provide more rich gameplay such as public welfare energy, environmental protection medals, coupons, etc., to guide users to actively participate. In order to allow users to participate more, the vice president of JD Group and the person in charge of the medical department of JD Health introduced that JD Health organized an online service team composed of licensed pharmacists with clinical pharmacy experience, which can provide users with a series of professional online pharmacy services such as drug treatment evaluation, post-diagnosis medication plan adjustment, drug treatment plan follow-up, etc., in view of the harm and recycling significance of expired drugs, the pharmacist team can continue to popularize science and improve user awareness through live broadcast, video, graphics and other easy-to-understand forms.
Cheng Weiwei, deputy general manager of the marketing department of China Resources Sanjiu, said that in the daily marketing process, China Resources Sanjiu will actively guide users to purchase drugs reasonably to avoid drug waste.
Liu Lili, deputy secretary-general of the Solid Waste Treatment and Utilization Committee of the China Environmental Protection Industry Association and researcher of the Basel Convention Regional Center for Asia and the Pacific of Tsinghua University, proposed that an ideal expired drug recycling mechanism needs to gain the trust of users, and how to deal with the expired drugs that are finally recalled has become an important part of users' attention.
It is understood that after Jingdong Xiaoge picks up the medicine, the expired drugs will be collected in the designated substandard product storage area of the Jingdong Health Drug Warehouse, which will be controlled by a special person and a special warehouse, and after completing the filing of the Environmental Protection Bureau system, the hazardous waste treatment company will uniformly implement the destruction treatment. According to the person in charge of sustainable development of JD Logistics, in the process of recycling expired drugs, JD Logistics' intelligent integrated supply chain solution is applied to track the flow and processing status of expired drugs through big data and Internet of Things technology to ensure that drugs are safe and transparent throughout the recycling process.
In the future, JD Health expects more users and partners to join the "Expired Drug Recycling" public welfare project to jointly build a solid line of defense for public health and ecological environment.