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April 19, 2010

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5 FDA officials arrested for taking bribes

FIVE officials from China's food and drug watchdog have been arrested on graft charges only three years after its former head was executed for the same offence.

Another official was ordered by investigators to stay at home pending results of the investigation.

The five were arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, the Economic Observer News reported yesterday.

Of the five arrested officials, Wei Liang was the first to be given double designation status in the investigation, which is still undergoing and may take in more officials, a well-informed source told the newspaper.

Double designation is when a Party official is ordered to answer allegations of disciplinary violations or corruption at a designated time and place.

Wei used to be a senior clerk in the bio-products division of the State Food and Drug Administration's drug registration department, which mainly deals with setting national standards and registering bio-products including vaccines and blood products.

"Wei was being investigated after a tip-off from a bio-products company," said a source familiar with the situation, adding that the company also had problems and Wei's violation involved about 1.5 million yuan (US$220,000).

The investigation was then extended to other administration officials.

Five more were given double-designation status and were suspended from duties before arrests were ordered of four of them. The other was ordered to stay at home pending results.

China's FDA is now affiliated with the Ministry of Health and no longer independent after its former top regulator Zheng Xiaoyu was executed in 2007. Zheng was found guilty of taking 6.49 million yuan in bribes and dereliction of duty. Six medicine approved by the administration during his tenure were fake.


 

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