A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday called for more efforts to fight corruption in the food and drug administration departments.

He Yong, deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said at a conference of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) that food and drug administration departments at all levels should step up efforts to fight commercial bribery and sales of fake medicine.

Officials who take bribes and extract advantages from pharmaceutical companies will be severely punished, He said.

The SFDA should make efforts to provide farmers with high quality and inexpensive drugs, he added.

The government stepped up its supervision of the drug market following a corruption scandal involving former SFDA head Zheng Xiaoyu.

Zheng allegedly failed to properly supervise the drug market, abused the administration's drug approval authority by taking bribes and turned a blind eye to malpractice by relatives and subordinate officials, according to the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Zheng, who had retired before the exposure and first came under investigation by the anti-corruption watchdog last December, was expelled from the Communist Party of China early this month.

Shao Mingli, the new director of the SFDA, said the administration launched an anti-corruption education campaign two months ago. The administration is determined to solve the problems and strengthen supervision.

On Wednesday the SFDA issued a directive banning the holding of drug company shares by drug supervision officials. Officials are no longer allowed to take part in banquets, recreation and tourism activities which may influence the fairness of procedures. Officials, their spouses and children are banned from holding stock in drug companies. Officials may not accept lecture fees, consultancy fees, expensive gifts and securities offered by drug companies and intermediate agencies.

Officials working in food and drug supervision departments must not disclose information concerning drug, health food and medical instrument applications.

To ensure that the rules are observed, the SFDA also issued a list of penalties.

Source: Xinhua