BEIJING, Jul 6 (AP) -- The assistant to China's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Friday on charges of bribery, his lawyer said, the latest development in a scandal that uncovered corruption in the country's drug approval system.

Cao Wenzhuang was given the death sentence with a two-year reprieve at the Beijing No.1 Intermediate Court on charges of accepting bribes and dereliction of duty, his lawyer Gao Zicheng said.

While the sentence was unusually harsh given the charges, such suspended death sentences usually are commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.

Cao, the pharmaceutical registration department director at the State Food and Drug Administration, reported to Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of the agency.

Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.