BEIJING, Mar. 15 -- A long and bitter letter from a diabetic patient gave lawmaker Shi Zuolin the idea to start his proposal against bogus medical advertisements.

    The patient in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian Province, complained in his letter that by readily believing in a fake medicine ad, he was "robbed" of both money and health.

    "My survey during the year shows the problem is worsening at an amazing speed," said Shi, deputy director of Fujian Provincial Hospital.

    Shi has given his proposal to the annual session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), which concluded yesterday.

    Statistics from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce show that topping the blacklist of illegal advertisements in 2003 were those of health care products, over-the-counter medicines and medical services.

    In China, prescription medicines which count for the majority of all the medicines supplied are not allowed to be promoted by ads.

    In a national probe into medicine advertisements conducted between January and September last year, 62 per cent of the surveyed on TV were illegal, with 95 per cent violating laws in newspapers.

    Cracking down on these illegal advertisements is a focus on annual World Consumer Rights Day, which falls today.

    But the problem never gets rooted out. "Loose official management should bear the brunt," Shi said.

    "Currently, the quality of medical service, medicines and health care foods, and ads for them are respectively supervised authorities of health, medicine and food administration, and industry and commerce administration," he added.

    Insufficient communications and collaboration between them creates loopholes for violators.

    Due to the misleading of these fake ads, about 2.5 million people in China take the wrong medicine annually, according to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

    "Lenient punishment also encourages violations," Shi added.

    The Advertisement Law says illegal ads can be fined five times more than their prices at maximum.

    However, two culprits the drug producers and the media are not afraid of the punishment because usually the maximum fine is only a very small number compared with the profits reaped.

    "The media who coverup illegal ads intentionally for the sake of high profits must also be heavily fined," Shi said.

    Moreover, Gao Qiang, vice-minister of health, said that several administrations now are drafting a report to the State Council suggesting to cancel the medicine and medical service ads, Xinhua reports.

    Gao and other members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also appealed that well-known celebrities should be forbidden to espouse the effects of medical service, medicines and health care food.

    The State Administration for Industry and Commerce has started a national campaign in 2005 to curbing five kinds of ads in medical fields.

    For example, medicine ads masquerading as news stories should not appear on the news pages of newspapers. Some ads even say they can cure AIDS. "Such ads must be removed from the media immediately," said an official from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

    
(Source: China Daily)