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Death for former drug chief who took bribes

By Li Xinran | May 30, 2007, Wednesday | Print Edition

CHINA'S former top drug regulator was sentenced to death by a Beijing court yesterday on charges of taking 6.49 million yuan (US$840,000) in bribes, and dereliction of duty. At least 21 people were killed by drugs he licensed.

Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, was sentenced by the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court, Xinhua news agency reported. The court also confiscated all his personal property.

Zheng may appeal to a higher court within 10 days. Otherwise he will be executed seven days after the sentence takes effect.

Zheng was convicted of accepting bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies from June 1997 to December 2006. He even approved six bogus drugs, including an antibiotic that killed at least 10 patients last year.

Drug companies were said to give Zheng and his family money and shares to gain drug licenses or certificates for good manufacturing practice.

The court found that Zheng acted presumptuously to lower the criteria for certificate upgrades, and allowed drug companies to obtain new licenses by falsifying data and information.

Consumer confidence in the country's drug industry crashed last year after a series of fatalities caused by substandard drugs.

Last July, Xinfu antibiotic injections, manufactured by Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Company, killed at least 10 patients and caused severe reactions in more than 80 others. Two months earlier, 11 people died after being given fake Armillarisin A injections produced by Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, in northeast Heilongjiang Province.

Media reports also said polyacrylamide hydrogel, an implant used in breast operations, was also approved while Zheng was in office. The substance was later banned after a 38-year-old woman died and patients suffered complications.

Zheng was fired in 2005 on charges he took millions of yuan in bribes to approve untested medicines. He was expelled this year from the Communist Party of China.

Zheng's case prompted the central government to review 170,000 drug licenses, most granted in 1999-2002, when Zheng was in office. By last August, the SFDA had issued licenses for 168,740 new drugs and established a data base for license numbers and the ingredients of all new drugs.

The country also re-examined drug companies that acquired a Good Manufacturing Practice certificate for registering new medicines in 2004 and 2005.

Zheng was appointed director of the SFDA when it was launched in 1998. Born in December 1949, he was the head of a pharmaceutical factory in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, until 1994.

In 2002, China required new medicines to be approved by the SFDA before they can be sold.

 

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