BEIJING -- China uncovered 167,000 cases of illegal production and trade in
medicines and medical equipment in the first half of this year, according to the
State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).
A total of 260 million yuan (US$32.5 million) was involved in the cases and
more than 200 underground drug production sites were shut down.
Fraudulent pharmaceutical company registration procedures were also detected
and punished. The SFDA inspected 14 companies and investigated 131 kinds of
drugs between January and June, said head of SFDA Shao Mingli.
Meanwhile, the administration monitored 270,000 illegal advertisements in the
public domain of drugs, medical equipment and health foods and reported them to
the industrial and commercial authorities.
The administration also punished 20 companies for illegal production during
the first half of the year, said Shao.
It is planning to launch a one-year national campaign to regulate the drug
market, which will target malpractice in drug research, production, distribution
and application as well as slack supervision.
The decision was made after the administration came to the conclusion that
the cause of a problematic antibiotic injection case, which left six dead, was
improper sterilization during its production.
The "Xinfu" drug, manufactured in June and July by Anhui Huayuan Worldbest
Biology Pharmacy Co., wasn't sterilized properly, with both the sterilization
temperature and time below the state-required safety level.
The administration has so far recalled more than 1.2 million bottles of the
drug, 173,007 are being returned to the factory and more than 403,170 bottles
have been sealed up in other areas.
Two months earlier, a fake injection produced by the Qiqihar No. 2
Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd., a privately-owned business in northeast China's
Heilongjiang Province, caused 11 deaths in China.
Both of the companies involved in the two accidents are qualified
pharmaceutical companies and their products were sold through legal channels.
The incidents prove that more efforts need to be devoted to checking raw
materials, production facilities, workers' qualifications and managers'
awareness of responsibilities in the drug industry, said Shao.
