Starting next week, authorities in Shenzhen will launch a
citywide campaign to screen the channels through which retail
pharmaceutical stores in the city purchase their drugs.
Severe punishment will be handed out to retail pharmacies that
are found to have violated relevant regulations, Thursday's
Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported, quoting officials
with the municipal food and drug administration. Pharmaceutical
stores found to have caused serious accidents by selling fake
medicines will have their business permit revoked, the Daily report
said. Stores caught selling fake drugs twice will have their
licenses suspended.
Currently, there are 1,600 retail pharmacies within the special
economic zone. The citywide campaign has been launched to ensure
the quality of drugs by regulating the pharmaceutical sector, said
Bai Xiaobin, head of the inspection division under the municipal
food and drug administration. Bai said about 5 percent of the
retail pharmacies in Shenzhen have been blacklisted for
drug-purchasing problems of various kinds. The campaign will mainly
target these problem stores that will be inspected individually
starting next week, he said.
During the campaign, the inspectors will check whether drug
suppliers are legal, and also inspect the purchasing records and
the computer systems at the pharmacies. In the future, all the
computer systems at the city's retail pharmacies will be required
to be linked to that at the municipal food and drug
administration.
(Shenzhen Daily October 13, 2006)
