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Former drug safety boss given death sentence in China

China's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death yesterday in an unusually harsh punishment for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

Seeking to address broadening concerns over food, the government also announced plans for its first recall system for unsafe products.

The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods -- from pet food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.

Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Zheng Xiaoyu (鄭筱萸) of taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than 6.49 million yuan (US$832,000) while he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration, Xinhua news agency said. Those bribes allowed eight companies to get around drug approval standards, it said.

Zheng also failed to make "careful arrangements for the supervision of medicine production, which is of critical importance to people's lives," Xinhua said, citing the court.

Under his watch, six types of medicine approved were fake and pharmaceutical companies got away with using false documents to apply for approvals, it said. No other details were given.

Zheng's acts "greatly undermined ... the efficiency of China's drug monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health and had a very negative social impact," the court said.

The punishment was appropriate given the "huge amount of bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public," Xinhua said.

In one instance, an antibiotic approved by the agency killed at least 10 patients last year before it was taken off the market.

It was not immediately clear if Zheng would appeal. Under Chinese law, a death sentence meted out by an intermediate court will automatically be reviewed by a higher court and ultimately has to be approved by the state Supreme Court.

The sentence was unusually heavy even for China and likely indicates the leadership's determination to deal with the recent scares involving unsafe food and drugs.
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