China's drug watchdog has sent supervisors to firms producing blood-based drugs and vaccines across China to crack down on the production of fake drugs.

More than 80 supervisors from the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) had been sent to 33 blood-based drug producers and 31 vaccine producers in 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities by the end of March.

An SFDA official said on Thursday that the administration keeps a close eye on the production of blood-based drugs and vaccines to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the drugs.

On Tuesday, the administration vowed to tighten supervision of the quality of human serum albumin-related medicine after a series of fake albumin medicine cases were exposed.

The SFDA kicked off a nationwide check on the quality of albumin-related medicine at the beginning of this year and spotted a slew of fake albumin medicine production and sales cases in provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions such as Shanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Ningxia, Qinghai, Chongqing and Jilin.

The illegal factories have been shut down. Fake medicines have been recalled and criminal suspects transferred to judicial organs, according to the SFDA.

In another case, the Guangdong health department last September found Guangdong Bioyee Pharmaceutical Co. had been collecting blood plasma illegally to make immunoglobulin and other drugs.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2007)