Following Shanghai and several cities in Guangdong province, Beijing has also begun to provide online drug purchase services through individual medical insurance accounts, covering 300 pharmacies city-wide, starting Monday, to better facilitate the public in purchasing medicines.

The Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau announced on Monday that insured individuals in Beijing can use their medical insurance personal accounts on the two platforms, Meituan and JD, to purchase over-the-counter drugs online from 300 designated retail pharmacies.

The delivery and packaging fees will be borne by the individual, and the purchased drugs will be promptly delivered by the online platform after placing the order.

Li Yubo, a local resident, was among the first to try purchasing OTC drugs through the online platform after he heard the news. He found the process to be simple — just log in to the platform, select the drugs marked with a "medical insurance" blue label, submit the order and choose "Beijing medical insurance personal account payment".

Currently, the 300 designated retail pharmacies can cover all the districts in the city.

At present, online drug purchases only support the buying of non-prescription drugs. For drugs prescribed by doctors in hospitals, insured individuals can make payments online through mobile platforms in up to 117 hospitals where the service are offered. And 50 designated hospitals have launched medical insurance mobile payment services on their own applications or mini-programs of Wechat.

The medical insurance bureau said that they will continue to explore and study online purchases of prescription drugs in the future to provide insured individuals with more convenient and efficient services.