China's drug administration authority will send supervisors to work in pharmaceutical companies this year to enhance their knowledge and supervision of modern drug production methods, a senior official has said.

"We need to explore new production supervision measures, and improve the measures by testing them in practice," said Wu Zhen, vice director of the State Food and Drug Administration, referring to recent cases in which substandard drugs have made people ill and even claimed lives.

According to the plan, the food and drug administration will dispatch supervisors to pharmaceutical companies that produce high-risk drugs, and to other companies as required, said Wu at an ongoing national drug safety conference in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province.

China saw a number of deaths caused by substandard drugs last year. An injection produced by Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province caused 11 deaths by June, and only two months later an antibiotic injection manufactured by Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co. was blamed for six deaths.

Wu Zhen said the food and drug administration would list injections as a high-risk drug this year and beef up supervision, as seven kinds of injection were deemed unsafe last year.

Injection and other high-risk drugs must be tested in factories and after going on sale, Wu added.

Source:未知