China blacklists 74 websites for selling fake traditional Chinese medicine

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM) on Tuesday blacklisted 74 websites for selling fake Chinese herbal medicine.

Names of those sites have been made public on SATCM's website at www.satcm.gov.cn.

Consumers are warned of buying any type of medicine from organizations such as the International Diabetes Institute of Genetic Engineering (www.010gbw.com), the China Research Center for Chinese Medicine (www.gxykf8.cn) and the China Cardiovascular Research Institute at (www.gxy007.cn).

Drugs sold on those websites claimed to be able to cure high blood pressure, skin diseases, diabetes and tumors.

SATCM has reported the 74 websites to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for further investigation. Those sites could be shut down.

As of now, they are still open.

Only one man, from the Diabetes Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Medicine website called Xinhua back. However, he hung up when he was asked about medicines for sale.

Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman with the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), said only those sites with the SFDA license of Internet medicine business can sell over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to individuals.

"So far, only ten websites across China have been issued with the license," she said.

The SFDA has published that list on its website (www.sfda.gov.cn) and urged the public to check it before buying drugs online.