Authorities are to tighten the supervision and regulation of
advertisements for medical products, and crack down on false and
misleading advertising.
The campaign will be jointly managed by the State Administration
of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and the Ministry of Health
(MOH).
An official with the SAIC said Monday that the SAIC would
inspect media that release large numbers of medical treatment
advertisements, and the results would be publicized.
Advertisements that have not been approved by the relevant
monitoring department or that have been altered without
authorization would incur prosecution for those responsible.
The supervisory departments would strengthen inspection of media
that release medical advertisements, and heads of media that
release the illegal advertisements would face penalties.
The regulatory departments should enhance their communication,
the official said.
The MOH, along with the State Administration of Traditional
Chinese Medicine, plans to organize all local healthy service
departments to clean up false medical advertising, said the
official.
China's medical advertising market had grown rapidly in recent
years. The country's advertising business was worth 7.6 billion
yuan (US$950 million) in 2005, ranking sixth in the world.
However, some ads for fake medicines have misled consumers and
harmed their interests. In the first three quarters last year,
11,000 irregular medical advertisements were reported.
(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2006)