China has been fighting fake drugs by uncovering about 70,000 cases in the first half of this year, many more than the total number last year.
Measures against fake drugs had worked effectively by cracking down on illegal selling, manufacturing and advertising, said Zheng Xiaoyu, director of the State Drug Administration, at a symposium on drug supervision held on Monday.
He said that traditional medicines and tonics had been intensively checked, and among 1,600 batches of such medicines 370 were found to contain the anti-impotence medication, Viagra. The illegal items involved 280 kinds of medicine from 127 manufacturers.
Research has proved peasants to be the most vulnerable to fake medicines, because of a lack of medical knowledge.
Zheng said stress would be put on drug supervision and reforms of the medical distribution systems in rural areas.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2002)
