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Beijing to collect expired medicine
By Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-21 07:09
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 centres' 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 per cent 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 per cent were disqualified,
mostly because of excessive lead content or were in the coli group.
(China Daily 01/21/2006 page2)
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