China's State Food and Drug Administration has listed 23 websites that have been found to be posting false drug information or selling fake drugs.
SFDA says it will pass details of these websites over to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for meting out punishment.
SFDA has published the names of these illegal websites on its website and suggested consumers log onto the website to check before they buy any drugs online.
According to Yan Jiangying, a spokesperson of the SFDA, as at December 8, 2008, there were only ten websites in China that were authorized to sell non-prescription drugs to individuals. These websites are: yaofang.cn, 818shyf.com, jxdyf.com, 4ujk.com, baiyjk.com, yunnanbaiyao.com.cn, daoyao.com, 511yd.com, eelbx.com and 51yao.com.cn.
China Central Television aired a report on November 15, 2008 that Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com was being used as a platform for unlicensed pharmaceutical companies to sell their medical wares. Baidu's share price sunk more than 35% on news of the crackdown and the company then pledged to straighten itself out.
In March 2008, China's State Food and Drug Administration exposed 25 websites that were involved in illegal selling of medicines. These websites included the fake websites of the Diabetes Treatment Center of China TCM Higher Medical Institute, the Diabetes Treatment Center of Chinese Herbal Medicine Research Institute, China Diabetes Recovery Website, International Beijing Chinese Herbal Medicine Diabetes Research Center, Beijing Chinese Herbal Medicine Research Institute Liver Disease Recovery Center, the fake Chinese PLA 301 Hospital, China Chinese Medicine Research Institute, China Chinese Medicine Research Institute High Blood Pressure Research Center, State Dermatosis Clinic Study Institute and China Chinese Medicine Difficulty and Complicated Disease Research Center.
