China's SFDA announces on-line Rx crackdown

China's State Food and Drug Administration has announced it is working with other government departments in a crackdown on Internet-supplied drugs. The government-controlled Xinhua news agency reported that purchasing convenience, low cost and cutting out official restrictions on prescribing were the drivers of demand for on-line drugs.

Shao Mingli, the Director of the SFDA, said that the Chinese authorities have obtained the cooperation of "popular web portals" to track and shut down illegal operations. The Shanghai regional offices of the agency identified 24 illegal drug retailers operating via the Internet from other parts of the country. Details are available from the SFDA's web site: www.sfda.gov.cn.

In an embarrassing development for the agency, the SFDA's own web site was the object of a fraud late last year. The producers of an unapproved diabetes product fabricated a false portal for the SFDA to include a list supposedly approved drugs. The site provided a link back to the illegal manufacturer. According to media reports at the time, it was several days before the Chinese authorities succeeded in shutting down the fake web site (Marketletter November 19, 2007).