FAKE DRUGS

China demonized

05-27-2009 | REUTERS

Panama Star China has been battling a string of tainted and counterfeit food and pharmaceutical cases over recent years and has vowed to get tough.

While many of these scandals have only had a domestic impact, others have affected consumers abroad. At least 100 people in Panama are thought to have died in 2006 after consuming toxic, mislabeled drugs in cough syrup from China.

But Bian Zhenjia, deputy head of the State Food and Drug Administration, said China was being unfairly blamed for the problem, especially by foreign media which claim the country is a major exporter of fake drugs. “I do not agree with the foreign media. The Chinese government has always paid a lot of attention to cracking down on fake drugs," Bian said. The problem was that sometimes overseas companies ignored Chinese regulations and did business with unregistered firms, he said. "We hope that we can work hard together with the rest of the world and crack down on fake drugs, not hype the problem he said.