Pretend doctors banned from TV

By Ian Ransom | February 17, 2009, Tuesday |

Print Edition

CHINA has banned actors and other "non-accredited personnel" from playing medical experts in advertisements for drugs after an Internet-led investigation exposed a number of bogus experts, state media reported yesterday.

An Internet user late last month exposed 12 fake experts selling medicine under various guises and names on television stations in the eastern Shandong Province, sparking an online uproar over false endorsements.

In a story published on February 4, The Beijing Times exposed a middle-aged actor who imitated four experts under different names on TV while selling drugs.

The article also mentioned an actress who mimicked patients suffering from lung, liver, kidney and heart problems. She claimed her diseases were cured after taking drugs mentioned in the advertisements.

The government said impersonating experts or patients was misleading, so new rules were set to prohibit the behavior, according to the Ministry of Health.

China's fair trade watchdog, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, vowed punishments after local hospitals and universities queued up to deny any affiliation to the "experts," local media reported.

Non-accredited personnel would be banned from such advertisements and other health programs on television, Xinhua news agency said, citing a notice jointly issued by the SAIC, the Health Ministry, China's media regulator and two other drug-quality watchdogs.

Further breaches would see advertisers and companies' advertising licences revoked and "temporary suspensions of sales for their medicinal products," Xinhua said.

The national broadcasting watchdog, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, has battled to clean up the advertising industry in recent years, periodically imposing advertising bans for local companies whose drugs and health products fail to meet standards.

But fake drug and food quality scandals continue, despite regulators' promises to get tough.

Police earlier this month arrested at least five people in connection with a fake diabetic drug linked to the deaths of two people in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Nation

About Us
|
Terms of Use
|
RSS
|
Privacy Policy
|
Contact Us
|
Shanghai Call Center: 962288
|
Tip-off hotline: 52920043

沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
|
互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
|
网络视听许可证：0909346
|
广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
|
增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012

Pretend doctors banned from TV

Email this to your friend