China has set up a special committee to supervise organ donations and transplants, the health authority announced on March 7.

Jointly founded by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) and the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), the new committee is the result of a merger of the Organ Transplant Committee and the China Organ Donation Committee, the NHFPC revealed in a statement.

The committee will be in charge of coordinating and guiding different systems including donation acquiring and distributing, clinical transplant services, postoperative registration, and transplant supervision.

China has the world's second-largest demand for organ transplants. About 300,000 patients suffer from organ failure each year, but only around 10,000 organ transplants are performed due to a lack of donors.

The country introduced an organ donation system in 2010, with the non-governmental RCSC serving as an independent third party for supervising and facilitating donation procedures.