China announces on-line drug crackdown

China's State Food and Drug Administration has given details of a crackdown against the illegal sale of prescription drugs on-line, according to a report by the Xinhua news agency. Confirming a previous report that fake web sites are being used, the SFDA's spokesman told reporters that these are often disguised as real hospitals or medical institutions.

Last year, one counterfeit gang even set up a fake SFDA web site with a listing of allegedly authorized medicines, some of which were bogus. Users of the site were redirected to a portal where counterfeit drugs could be purchased (Marketletters passim).