US govt requests "rapid" drug action from China

The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, called on the Chinese government to ensure "rapid action to accomplish certain goals related to the safety of food and drugs." He added that the DHHS had "emphasized the need for three things: to have better cooperation, to have better information, and to have the Chinese devise and enforce regulations that we can understand, with which we agree and in which we feel confident."

The statement by Mr Leavitt was made on the occasion of USA-China bilateral meetings on food and drug safety, following a recent spate of incidents involving imported products from China, as well as the US Food and Drug Administration's investigation of counterfeit drug materials in Panama (Marketletters passim) where several hundred people were reportedly taken ill or died, due to fake glycerin from China in locally-manufactured cough syrup.

US media reports have highlighted the growing number of drugs and health supplements, such as vitamin tablets, that are imported from China. In an effort to boost local and international confidence, the Chinese government is reforming the State Food and Drug Administration and even recently executed its former Director (Marketletters passim).