China Medical Device Official Could Be in Trouble

Qmed Staff

May 29, 2015

1 Min Read
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The Chinese government has mounted an investigation of an official who had served as the director of the China FDA.

Qmed Staff

Tong Min, who had served as the director of the China Food and Drug Administration's department of medical device supervision, had allegedly committed "serious discipline violations," according to the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on its website Friday.

The move is part of a broader push by the Chinese government to confront corruption. Last year, the Chinese government finedJohnson & Johnson, Bausch & Lomb, and GlaxoSmithKline over price fixing and bribery.

Tong was recruited as the head of China FDA's department of medical device supervision in 2013, after a decade-long stint working in the nation's food safety unit.

China is also attempting to prosecute Wang Yu, the former director of the nation's Health and Family Planning Commission's bureau of medical administration, who helped draft policy and oversaw medical device and drug trials. Yu, who retired last year, had been accused of fostering healthcare-related bribery.

Prosecutions such as those cited above are a part of President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, which is one of the most aggressive in modern China history, as observed by Bloomberg. The culture of widespread bribery he had inherited had served to put brakes on the nation's growth.

In related news, China has sharply increased the fees needed to register medical devices and drugs, as the country struggles to confront a growing number of applications.

Brian Buntz is the editor-in-chief of MPMN and Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @brian_buntz.

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