Last week the Guangzhou Tainhe district court ruled against four defendants who were involved in a fake drugs scandal which lead to the death of 14 people. The lawsuit was filed in March 2007 and accused the defendants (three pharmaceutical companies and a hospital) of producing and selling counterfeit drugs.

The courts ordered the defendants (Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Health Care Goods Co, and Guangzhou Jinhengyuan Medicine Trading Co) to pay a total of Rmb 3.5 million (US$509,800) to 11 plaintiffs. The compensation was calculated to cover the plaintiffs’ medical expenses and damages for mental suffering, the court said. According to Chen Beiyuan, the attorney for one of the plaintiffs, this was “the highest compensation we could have achieved under the existing law.”

In 2007 the State Council issued a five-year plan for food and drug safety administration, aiming to improve monitoring and law enforcement systems in food and drug production. The plan commits to enlarging the drug quality inspection forces and building more institutes to supervise drugs and medical equipment.

The ruling in this recent case, the new five-year plan and the execution of Zheng Xiaoyu (former head of the State Food and Drug Administration) in July 2007 for taking bribes to approve untested medicine, all show China’s commitment to making progress on this life-threatening issue.

“I hope a more comprehensive safety law is introduced as soon as possible” said Chen.