Collection boxes will be set up in Beijing to recover expired medicine in every residential quarter in a bid to promote drug safety, according to the municipal drug administration.

Fang Laiying, an administration spokesman, said on Thursday that the government was calling on residents to put expired drugs into the boxes to ensure they would not re-enter the market by other channels.

Fang said the government would pay for the boxes and the cost of destroying the drugs.

The locked collection boxes will be placed in every community service center in April or May and watched by the centers' employees to prevent them and their contents from being stolen.

Feng Guoan, administration director, pointed out that when some pharmacies offered coupons for expired drugs, the practice was, in fact, a sales promotion.

Feng said the government does not encourage such a practice and regards it as improper for pharmacies to sell drugs and recover drugs at the same time, which would easily raise doubts as to the drugs' quality.

Fang also revealed other measures to be taken this year to improve drug safety:

To open an offence-reporting center;

The center will have a hotline with a special number to receive complaints and reports on drugs, health food or medical instruments from residents and provide information. In the past, the residents had to report offences to each branch of the administration.

To establish a qualification system for pharmacy shopping assistants, including an examination that assistants will have to pass to be certified.

Pharmacies will be evaluated and classified;

The administration is establishing criteria to evaluate pharmacies, which will finish in two years. Pharmacies with outstanding service and management evaluations will be allowed to post special signs to mark their excellence.

Pharmacists to wear check placards, which will enable authorities to track their work in drugstores, as each pharmacist is allowed to work in only one store.

Pharmacists at each store are required to wear standardized electronic check placards that contain their professional information and credit record. They will need to swipe the card at door before starting work every day.

The administration also announced the results of last year's spot checks on drugs, health food, cosmetics and medical appliances at the conference.

The results showed among the 8,495 kinds of drugs checked, 1.72 percent were disqualified.

Wang Xiaowei, an official with the administration, also reminded consumers of the possible danger of using some weight-loss medicines.

Wang said some of such medicines contained elements that will damage livers.

Among the 261 kinds of health food checked, 4.6 percent were disqualified, mostly because of excessive lead content or were in the coli group.

(China Daily January 21, 2006)