Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of the State Food and Drug
Administration (SFDA), who left his post 18 months ago, is now
being investigated for allegedly taking bribes by the country's top
disciplinary department. The China Business Post on
Saturday reported that Zheng has been implicated in a string of
bribery cases that occurred before he left his job on June 22 of
2005.
Last November one of Zheng's directors at the SFDA, Hao Heping,
was sentenced to 15 years in prison for taking bribes. Hao was
fired from his post as director of the SFDA's medical equipment
department two weeks after Zheng left his job.
Cao Wenzhuang, former director of the SFDA's drug registration
department, was detained in January 2006 on suspicion of
bribery.
Both Hao and Cao had worked for Zheng as his secretary prior to
becoming directors at the SFDA.
Zheng became SFDA director in 1998 when the agency was launched.
He helped promote a certification system of Good Manufacturing
Practice.
In 2002 China adopted national standards that replaced various
local systems for approving medicines. All new medicines must now
be approved by the SFDA before being sold.
Zheng, born in December of 1949, has worked in the pharmacy
sector for 23 years. He was head of a pharmaceutical factory in
Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, before taking the post of
director in 1994 in the State Drug Administration, which?was
merged four years later with the State Food Administration to
create the SFDA.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2007)