The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) with seven other government departments, is to conduct a nationwide inspection from the end of June to strengthen regulations on manufacturing and trading of performance-enhancing drugs.

The team is composed of departments such as ministries of public security, health and industry and information technology, China Customs, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Sport and Beijing organizing committee of the Olympic Games.

The SFDA said the inspection team would pay more attention to Olympic hosting cities and regions with a concentrated chemical industry and investigated the manufacture and sale of doping drugs, the handling of illegal cases and the progress in training doping inspectors.

It would also oversee online information on dope-related trades.

Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Qingdao and Qinhuangdao are cooperative host cities on the Chinese mainland for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Shenzhen, an economically prosperous city bordering Hong Kong, was also on the priority list of investigation for illegal trading in performance-enhancing drugs.

Since March, authorities had punished 23 companies for illegal drugs trading, or selling sports performance enhancers which should not be available over the counter, and shut down 321 websites containing illegal drug trading information.

By May 31, drug watchdogs across the country had investigated 2,739 drug companies and 298,800 retailers, among which they penalized 125 illegal cases and revoked 18 licenses.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2008)