BEIJING: Beijing has cracked the whip on the pharmaceutical industry suspending the sales of a drug used to treat acute leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis. This is part of a larger move by the central government in China to protect itself from criticism at home and abroad about lax monitoring standards in the food and drug industry.
The announcement comes within a week of Cao Wenzhuang, a former department head at the State Food and Drug Administration being sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on bribery charges. Suspended death sentences usually result in life imprisonment after the reprieve period. He was charged with taking bribes o approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.
The State Food and Drug Administration also announced it had shut down five drug manufacturers in the past on year including a drug maker found to be responsible for producing a medical substance that resulted in the deaths of 11 people in Heilongjiang province earlier this year. The food and drug watchdog said it has also revoked the Good Manufacturing Practice certificates that had been earlier awarded to 128 drug makers as a sign of good performance.
The license of a drug maker, Guangdong Baiyi Pharmaceutical, was cancelled for making a blood product from an infected donor. The watch dog has increased the number of inspectors and improved the quality of monitoring production facilities in the industry over the past six months, official sources claimed.
China received a blow to its exports when infected pet foods resulted in the deaths of dogs and cats in North America. The pet foods were found to contain Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine. US authorities enhanced their checking of Chinese food and drugs over the past few months and banned or turned away Chinese products including toxic fish, and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint. Chinese-made toothpaste was blocked in several countries as it contained diethylene glycol, a low-cost and sometimes deadly substitute for glycerin.
Official sources said that sales of methotrexate produced by Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has been suspended because it caused an adverse reaction in several child leukemia patients in three hospitals in Shanghai and the southern province of Guangxi province. The drug caused pain in the legs for some children while others experienced difficulty in walking.
The official Xinhua quoted World Health Organization statistics saying there have been 12,502 reports of adverse reactions to methotrexate worldwide.
source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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