BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), was sentenced to death by a Beijing court on Tuesday.

    Zheng, 63, was convicted of taking bribes and dereliction of duty, according to the first instance hearing of the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.

    He received the death penalty on the graft charge and seven years in prison for dereliction of duty. All his personal property was confiscated and he was deprived of his political rights for life.

    The death sentence was appropriate, according to the court, given the "huge bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public by Zheng's dereliction of duty".

    The bribes taken by Zheng, including cash and gifts, were worth more than 6.49 million yuan (about 850,000 U.S. dollars), according to the court. The bribes were given either directly or through his wife and son.

    The court said Zheng "sought benefits" for eight pharmaceutical companies by approving their drugs and medical devices during his tenure as China's chief drug and food official from June 1997 to December 2006.

    "(Zheng's acts) greatly undermined the integrity of an official post and the efficiency of China's drug monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health and had a very negative social impact," the court said.

    Zheng violated reporting rules and decision-making processes when approving medicines from 2001 to 2003. He failed to make careful arrangements for the supervision of medicine production, which is of critical importance to people's lives, said the court.

    The consequences of Zheng's dereliction of duty have proved extremely serious. Six types of medicine approved by the administration during that period were fake. Some pharmaceutical companies used false documents to apply for approvals, the court said.

    A report in China Business News earlier this month said Zheng's wife, Liu Naixue, and his son, Zheng Hairong, had been arrested for involvement in the case, citing a "well-informed source".

    Zheng, born in December 1944, joined the Communist Party of China in November 1979. He majored in biology at Fudan University in Shanghai.

    He was the head of the State Pharmaceutical Administration from 1994 to 1998, and head of the State Drug Administration from 1998 to 2003. He was appointed director of the SFDA in May 2003 after it was formed.

    Zheng retired in 2005. He first came under investigation by the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in December 2006 and was expelled from the Party in March 2007.

    Earlier reports said that Zheng's subordinates had provided evidence against their former boss.

    Hao Heping, former director of the SFDA's Department of Medical Devices and one of Zheng's former secretaries, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bribery in November last year.

    Cao Wenzhuang, former director of SFDA's Department of Drug Registration and also a former secretary of Zheng, has been under investigation since January last year.

    An official from the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said: "Zheng's case highlights weaknesses and loopholes in the legal system, the abuse of administrative power, a lack of supervision, and weak anti-corruption attitudes among officials."

    Leaders of key departments should rotate positions at fixed intervals to avoid corruption, the official added.

    Shao Daosheng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China's pharmaceutical industry has become a focus of public dissatisfaction for producing fake and substandard medicines and widely using bribery to sell their drugs to hospitals.

    "Commercial bribery is widespread in the pharmaceutical industry, as dishonest manufacturers buy licenses from corrupt regulators," Shao said.

    The government implemented national standards for approving medicines in 2002. All new medicines must be approved by the SFDA before they can be put on the market.

    Zheng also helped promote a certification system called Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), which was brought into disrepute by a series of health scares and corruption scandals.

    Under the system, companies must possess a GMP certificate before they can register new medicines.

    The credibility of GMP was seriously undermined last July when "Xinfu" antibiotic injections, manufactured by Anhui Huayuan World best Biology Pharmacy Company, caused the deaths of at least six patients and severe reactions in more than 80 others.

    A brain surgeon surnamed Liu, who has worked in a Beijing hospital for more than three years, said, "Kickbacks have become a hidden rule in some small and poorly managed hospitals, and some doctors only prescribe drugs guaranteed by kickbacks, without caring about the effects on patients."

    Liu said large hospitals were "relatively disciplined".

    He hoped to see improvements in the medical sector after effective measures are taken to tackle corruption.