Collection boxes will be set up in Beijing to recover expired
medicine in every residential quarter in a bid to promote drug
safety, according to the municipal drug administration.
Fang Laiying, an administration spokesman, said on Thursday that
the government was calling on residents to put expired drugs into
the boxes to ensure they would not re-enter the market by other
channels.
Fang said the government would pay for the boxes and the cost of
destroying the drugs.
The locked collection boxes will be placed in every community
service centre in April or May and watched by the centers'
employees to prevent them and their contents from being stolen.
Feng Guoan, administration director, pointed out that when some
pharmacies offered coupons for expired drugs, the practice was, in
fact, a sales promotion.
Feng said the government does not encourage such a practice and
regards it as improper for pharmacies to sell drugs and recover
drugs at the same time, which would easily raise doubts as to the
drugs' quality.
Fang also revealed other measures to be taken this year to
improve drug safety:
To open an offence-reporting centre;
The centre will have a hotline with a special number to receive
complaints and reports on drugs, health food or medical instruments
from residents and provide information. In the past, the residents
had to report offences to each branch of the administration.
To establish a qualification system for pharmacy shopping
assistants, including an examination that assistants will have to
pass to be certified.
Pharmacies will be evaluated and classified;
The administration is establishing criteria to evaluate
pharmacies, which will finish in two years. Pharmacies with
outstanding service and management evaluations will be allowed to
post special signs to mark their excellence.
Pharmacists to wear check placards, which will enable
authorities to track their work in drugstores, as each pharmacist
is allowed to work in only one store.
Pharmacists at each store are required to wear standardized
electronic check placards that contain their professional
information and credit record. They will need to swipe the card at
door before starting work every day.
The administration also announced the results of last year's
spot checks on drugs, health food, cosmetics and medical appliances
at the conference.
The results showed among the 8,495 kinds of drugs checked, 1.72
percent were disqualified.
Wang Xiaowei, an official with the administration, also reminded
consumers of the possible danger of using some weight-loss
medicines.
Wang said some of such medicines contained elements that will
damage livers.
Among the 261 kinds of health food checked, 4.6 percent were
disqualified, mostly because of excessive lead content or were in
the coli group.
(China Daily January 21, 2006)