China to crack down on fake drugs amid snow-havoc relief efforts

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's food and drug watchdog Tuesday said it will strictly probe, prosecute and crack down on production and distribution of counterfeit drugs to ensure medicine supply in the snow-disaster relief work.

The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has vowed to work closely with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)and Ministry of Health (MOH) to reinforce the supervision of drugs production and distribution.

It will take measures to meet drug-using demand in the snow-hit areas, such as organizing production and supply of medical equipments and drugs for respiratory tract infection (RTI) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), making substantial reserve of injection, blood products and vaccines.

Relevant departments will work out emergency plans to prevent severe large-scale shortage of important drugs. The SFDA urged the National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products to serve as usual during the Spring Festival season and subject rigorous testing on donated disaster-relief medicines.

The administration asked food and drug supervision departments at all levels to ensure production, supply and quality safety of disaster-relief food, medicines, and medical equipments; take strict precautions against counterfeit and shoddy products; implement report and disposal system on severe food safety incidents; lay emphasis on food supervision at rail and bus stations, airports, areas along roads and other crowded places to prevent mass food poisoning.

So far, no food safety incident or adverse drug reaction case has been reported in snow-hit areas.

The central government has allocated a record 3.7 billion yuan (about 500 million U.S. dollars) in 2006 and 2007 for food and drug supervision, more than the total budget from 1998 to 2005.

As a result, 90 percent of drug control departments at the provincial level and 60 percent at the city level were capable of conducting full-scale drug tests, said Li Yunlong, head of the national institute.

Shao Mingli, head of the SFDA, said the administration would improve all stages of the drug supervision process, including production, transfer, pricing, selling and use, to reduce consumer costs and keep fake drugs off the market.

The snow has been falling in east, central and south China since mid-January, leading to deaths, structural collapses, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop losses in 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

More than 100 million people have been affected, and at least 60 people have died in the freezing weather.