Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16682

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Electronic Source

Pitts P
'Shaming' is good. Prison is better.
DrugWonks.com 2009 Oct 26
http://www.drugwonks.com/blog_post/show/7030

Full text:

China will launch a one-year crackdown on fake drug ads on the Internet and sales of fake drugs through postal services, according to an inter-ministerial conference on October 23. The campaign will be jointly launched by 13 ministries including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).

Health Minister Chen Zhu said Web sites, advertisement companies, postal services, medical institutions and commercial banks involved in such illegal businesses are the main targets of the crackdown.

Shao Mingli, director of the State Food and Drug Administration, said the SFDA’s official Web sites will name and shame those sites advertising fake drugs to alert the public. Most recently, the administration exposed six drug producers whose advertisements contain content of over-promised efficacy and guarantee in the name of consumers.

Shaming is good — prison terms would be even better.