[e-drug] China focuses on State Food and Drug standards

["Libby Levison" <libby@theplateau.com>]

E-DRUG: China focuses on State Food and Drug standards
---------------------------------------------------

I think that this is a very interesting story for E-Drug.  I won't 
comment on the terms of the sentence.  But the Chinese government has 
clearly decided that the quality of foods and medicines is to receive 
much attention.  Whatever the motivation, there could be significant 
impact for the E-Drug community.

Libby Levison
public health consultant
libby@theplateau.com

BBC: Death penalty for China official
May 29, 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6699441.stm

Death penalty for China official

China has sentenced the former head of the State Food and Drug 
Administration to death after he was convicted of corruption, state 
media has reported.

Zheng Xiaoyu was convicted on charges of taking bribes and of 
dereliction of duty, Xinhua news agency reported.

The sentence is unusually harsh for a senior figure, but Zheng could 
have his sentence reduced to life on appeal.

The verdict came as the government announced plans for the first ever 
recall system of unsafe food products.

Beijing has been under pressure to act over increasing concern both 
at home and abroad about the poor standards of Chinese-produced food 
and medicines.

Name poisoned

State television showed footage of a grey-haired Zhang - who was 
expelled from the Communist Party earlier this year - appearing in 
court in Beijing flanked by police officers.

He had been accused by an official investigation last month of 
accepting more than 6.5m yuan ($850,000) in bribes to approve 
hundreds of drugs.

One company, Kongliyuan Group, allegedly paid Zhang bribes in return 
for approving 277 drugs, mostly antibiotics.

Zheng's former secretary, Cao Wenzhuang, also faced trial, accused of 
accepting bribes. Thirty-one other people were also alleged to have been involved in 
the scandal, including Zheng's wife, Liu Naixue, and his son, Zheng Hairong.

Following Zheng's sacking in 2005, the Chinese government announced a 
review of about 170,000 medical licences that were awarded during his 
tenure at the agency.

Dozens of people have died in China because of poor quality or fake drugs.

Last year, a sub-standard antibiotic, Xinfu, which was not properly 
sterilised, caused the deaths of 11 people.

Thirteen babies died of malnutrition in 2005 after being fed powdered 
milk that contained no nutritional value.

The Chinese government recently announced an urgent review of 
industry food standards after public alarm over a recent spate of cases.

US inspectors blamed exported Chinese pet food ingredients, 
contaminated with melamine, for the deaths of cats and dogs in North America.

And they recently halted shipments of toothpaste from China to 
investigate reports that they may be contaminated with toxic chemicals.

On Tuesday, as Zheng was sentenced, the government said a new recall 
process targeting "potentially dangerous and unapproved food 
products" would be brought in by the end of the year.

"All domestic and foreign food producers and distributors will be 
obliged to follow the system," Wu Jianping, of the General 
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, was 
quoted as saying.