Are Chinese drugs and chemicals safe?

Beijing-based producer Beth Loyd blogs:

There are an estimated 80,000 chemical companies in China. Many of these companies manufacture ingredients for drugs and export these chemicals to more than 150 countries. And many are not regulated at all by the Chinese government.

In 2006, a government-run trading company, CNSC Fortune Way, exported bad chemicals from one of these unlicensed plants to Panama. The chemical was put in cough medicine and killed or disabled 138 people. That was more than a year ago. When we called the company today to ask what procedures they employ to guarantee the safety of the products they export, they told us, “We are a state-run company. We don’t give interviews.”

More recently, several Chinese chemical companies have been caught exporting counterfeit drugs and chemicals that were used to make steroids.

So, what steps have been put in place to prevent other such occurrences? Who is responsible for overseeing these companies? The answer is a hard to come by. We called every agency in Beijing, hoping that someone could shed some light.

The Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
(AQSIQ) told us that they are only responsible for food and finished
products, such as toys. They do not oversee companies who manufacture
chemicals.

The Food and Drug Safety Administration says they oversee drug
companies throughout the production process. But they don’t monitor
chemical companies, despite the fact that many of these companies
manufacture ingredients for pharmaceuticals.

The Ministry of Commerce referred us to the National Chemical Administration. Turns out, that agency was abolished years ago.

Finally, we reached the All China Fine Chemical Materials and
Intermediate Association, a department of the China Chemical
Information Center. They told us that chemical companies that simply
manufacture ingredients for drugs don’t need government licenses to
export the chemicals. It is up to the importer who makes the final
product to determine the quality of the Chinese chemical and whether or
not it meets their safety standards.

One such company is the Changzhou Watson Fine Chemical company. It
advertises that it makes active pharmaceutical ingredients. A salesman
for this company told the New York Times that they only export these
chemicals to countries with lower standards than China, or if “we can
earn really good profits.” A representative of the company told us that
they only supply ingredients for drugs. They did not know what
regulatory board they answered to. The representative we spoke to had
never heard of AQSIQ.

This is not just an export problem. China has faced scandal
domestically. In 2004, thirteen babies died from malnutrition in Annhui
province because they had been consuming fake formula. The ensuing
investigation revealed that Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of the Food
and Drug Safety Administration, was taking bribes to approve food and
drugs. He pocketed nearly a million dollars over his 7 year tenure.
This year, during the height of the toy recall, he was convicted of
corruption and dereliction of duty. He was executed shortly thereafter,
in part to send a message to other corrupt officials.

While corruption is a huge problem in China, the term itself implies
that someone is overseeing things and just lets things slide for
personal gain. But when it comes to these chemical companies that
produce ingredients for drugs around the world, it’s very hard to
determine who will be held accountable.