
Senior officials with the State Food and Drug Administration
meet the press on the sidelines of the ongoing parliament session in Beijing,
March 16, 2008.
BEIJING, March 16 (Xinhua) -- China has ordered all pharmaceutical plants
to tag medicines that contain stimulants to prevent athletes from mistakenly
using banned drugs during the Olympic Games, a drug watchdog official said here
on Sunday.
Drugstores were told not to sell such medicine without tags that read
"athletes cautious" on the package, said Wu Zhen, vice director the State Food
and Drug Administration at a press conference on the sidelines of the parliament
session.
Only approved pharmaceutical plants and wholesalers are allowed to produce
and wholesale protein assimilation preparations and peptide hormones, the
official said.
The Chinese law also forbids the sales of protein assimilation preparations
except insulin or the sales of peptide hormones, Wu added.
The moves were aimed at a fair and clean environment for the Games, Wu
noted.
A catalog of drugs needed during the Olympic Games has been compiled.
China is resolute against doping and the Beijing Olympics will feature the
largest number of doping tests in the history of the Games, according to
officials with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).
Anti-doping requirements have been issued to all participating athletes at
the Beijing Games, officials said.