Drug supervision for farmers

The head of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said that two regulatory networks will be established to monitor the price and quality of drugs available to rural areas. SFDA chief Zheng Xiaoyu said work began in 2003 on a rural drug supervision network and a drug supply network which are expected to begin to be implemented by 2005. Aside from addressing quality control issues such as drug counterfeiting, the networks are expected to reduce drug prices for farmers. Local pilot projects in the cities of Beijing and Chengdu and Jiangxi and Shaanxi provinces were successfully implemented in June 2003, Zheng said.