China would implement Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) in drug and raw drug material production strictly in line with the fixed schedule, while never lowering the already set standards, said Shao Mingli, vice director of the State Food and Drug Administration Tuesday.

Speaking at the China drug safety supervision conference in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan province, Shao said that the preparatory work for implementing GMP had stepped into its final phases.

From July 1, 2004, any drug producer who does not have the GMP authentication will be closed down, the official said.

Those unqualified enterprises could resume their production at the end of this year if they passed the GMP authentication.

So far 52 percent of China's drug and raw drug materials enterprises have the GMP authentication.

(People's Daily March 3, 2004)