International - Beijing sends inspectors to check on factories making "Made in India" fake drugs

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Fake drugs made in China but stamped 'made in India' hit third world countries.

Actually fake pharmaceuticals produced in China, a SFDA spokesperson has said.

The matter came to light after The Times of India reported that Nigeria’s Drug Regulatory Authority has seized a large consignment of fake anti-malaria drugs that were made in China but stamped ‘Made in India’ to escape blame. The TOI report resulted in the Indian government lodging a protest with China.

"We are highly concerned about the case and are sending investigating officials to the Chinese provinces involved, including Guangdong,"

SFDA spokesperson Yan Jiangying told a press conference.

The statement shows that SFDA headquarters is Beijing does not fully trust its provincial units to carry out monitoring and investigation into the concerned company. It came soon after the SFDA hit out against a report in a British daily saying that fake Chinese drugs are flooding the United Kingdom.

The fake drug business, which claimed two more lives in Xinjiang province late last month, is a massive and well-connected industry in China. But the SFDA was fuming in May end when a British daily said China is flooding the United Kingdom with fake drugs.

The government has indirectly admitted that the enough is not being done to check production of fake drugs. Two weeks back, China’s Supreme People's Court recently reinterpreted aspects of the criminal law concerning counterfeit and inferior drug production and sales in order to make them more effective.

Cui Enxue, director of the SFDA's drug safety inspection bureau, has now promised through investigation whenever foreign buyers come up with complaints on fake drugs. The defaulting companies will be punished severely, he said.

Cui advised overseas buyers to deal only with Chinese drug producers and traders that are recognized by SFDA. But he did not explain if the company involved in the Nigerian sales was a registered one.

Another SFDA official had blamed foreign buyers for distribution of fake drugs in May after The Observer daily reported about Chinese fake drugs flooding the British market.

"The problems lie in the fact that some overseas companies have deals with illegal producers in China so the products involved have problems," SDFA deputy commissioner Bian Zhenjia said in May end. "I don't agree with what the foreign media has been saying. The Chinese government has always paid great attention to cracking down on fake drugs".

13 Jun 2009, 1959 hrs IST, Saibal Dasgupta, TNN

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/W...ow/4652993.cms

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