Centre Set up to Curb Graft in Drug Licensing
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China launched a national centre on Monday to handle applications of licences for new drugs or medical devices as part of efforts to fight corruption and increase efficiency. All drug makers should first hand in their application documents to the centre, which is under the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). The centre, after making sure the enterprises and their products are qualified to apply for licences, will then transfer the documents to a team of experts who will examine them. Based on the examinations, SFDA will give a final approval for the drugs or medical devices, and the centre will issue licences to the enterprises. The centre is also authorized to ask the experts and relevant SFDA departments to finish their work on time, said Zhu Guofu, director of the centre. Before the establishment of the centre, it was the responsibility of the SFDA departments to accept, examine and approve licence-related documents. However, those departments with approving authority enjoy unsupervised power. The situation has caused serious corruption and made the system inefficient in the past. In early January, Cao Wenzhuang, 44, director of the department of Drug Registration of SFDA, and five other officials were arrested and charged with taking bribes. Before Cao, Hao Heping, another SFDA official, former director of the Department of Medical Devices, was also detained last June and accused of accepting bribes. More : english.cri.cn |