US$1.2bn marked for better food, drug supervision

China will commit US$1.2 billion toward improving food and drug supervision, China's food and drug watchdog announced on Wednesday, according to Finance Tongxun (in Chinese). US$832 million of the funding will come from the central government while local governments will provide the rest, said State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) spokeswoman Yan Jiangying on Wednesday. With the money China aims to comprehensively improve the infrastructure and technology for food and drug administration in three to five years, said Yan. The Chinese government has been under great pressure to revamp the country's food and drug safety system following a series of domestic and international incidents over substandard food and drug products as well as several bribery sandals involving high-ranking officials from the country's food and drug watchdog.