From The Wall Street Journal:
An investigation into corruption at China’s drug-watchdog agency has exposed the government’s role in allowing shoddy medicines to thrive and is threatening to slow the drug-approval process in the country’s fast-growing pharmaceutical market.
For years, China’s pharmacies and hospitals have been plagued by low-quality and fake medicines made by local drug companies. Just last fall, an antibiotic made by a pharmaceutical company in Anhui province sickened dozens of people across China and killed at least 10, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
Blame often falls on small drug makers that the government says skirt laws to turn a profit. Now, the man who ran China’s State Food and Drug Administration until he stepped down in 2005 is at the center of a widening corruption scandal.[Full Text]
