Leukemia drug suspended
9 July 2007
China has suspended the sale of a drug used to treat leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis over safety, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a notice posted Saturday on its website, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said it had stopped sales of methotrexate made by Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical because it caused adverse reactions among leukemia patients in hospitals in Guangxi and Shanghai, saying that drug regulators had been "ordered to reevaluate the drug." The suspension comes on the heels of a series of scandals involving the country's beleaguered pharmaceutical industry. On Friday, a court in Beijing sentenced Cao Wenzhuang, a department director at the SFDA to death with a two-year reprieve on charges of accepting bribes and neglecting duties. Cao was secretary to Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of the agency in the 1980s who was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes in exchange for approving medicines that did not meet quality standards.
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