Drug approval process must change

Punishing a single company is meaningless, if the rules are not changed in the medical field, said an article in Southern Metropolis Daily (excerpts below).

Allegations against GlaxoSmithKline may have exposed large-scale bribery in the medical sector, especially over the cost of medicines.

Bribes may account for 20 to 30 percent of the price of drugs.

In China, all medicines and drugs must be inspected and go through an approval process.

Drugs can be approved within months or years and the suspicion is that the time depends on "relationships".

Some so-called new medicines are actually old medicines with new packages and labels.

Bribing doctors is another way to boost medicine sales.

The approval system must be changed. There can be no place for bribes in this sector or in society generally.