Thirteen Chinese Ministries, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the State Food and Drug Administration, have jointly launched a nationwide campaign against both false medicine advertisements and sending fake pharmaceuticals through the express mail.

The purpose of the campaign is to restrict the marketing and selling of fake medicines through such media platforms as the Internet, to limit the circulation of counterfeit medicines via the postal express mail service, and to close down manufacturing sites and sales networks of fake medicines.

Statistics from the World Health Organization show that the sales revenue of fake medicines in 2005 reached USD39 billion and it is expected to reach USD75 billion in 2010.

Shao Mingli, the vice minister of China's Ministry of Health and the director of SFDA, said that fake medicine is a problem faced by both the international community and by China. As early as May 2009 when the joint chair meeting system was set up, the 13 departments began to prepare a one-year campaign against fake medicines.

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