China's pharmaceutical producers and the media will be subject to stricter supervision on the advertising of medical products by the Central and local drug administrative authorities starting this month.
Friday's China Daily said that the State Drug Administration is planning to establish a reporting system on the deceitful advertising of medicines in order to protect the health of the public.
The administration will regularly make public false and misleading drug advertisements. According to a notice issued by the administration, local drug administrations should report to it any illegal drug advertisements they find before the middle of each month.
The administration will make investigations of the reports before releasing facts to the public. People or companies violating related State laws and regulations will be punished.
The administration announced a list of the unqualified advertisements for the first time early this week. A total of 316 medicines had their public advertising licenses revoked and 139 drugs have been ordered to stop publishing.
(People's Daily 07/13/2001)
