OK, that headline was rather dramatic, but yeah, this has been rather traumatic for the Food & Drug Administration following huge corruption scandals. For those of us that have pharma and medical device work and rely on stability from government officials, this has meant delays and uncertainty for our clients.

After much internal restructuring, including having lots of officials rotated out of key positions, the following was announced last week:

The food and drug watchdog announced new anti-corruption measures yesterday amid a slew of graft cases. They followed a number of regulations by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) issued last month to discourage graft.

The measures prohibit officials from taking part in some banquets, recreation and tourism activities which may influence the fairness of their work and prohibit them from secretly holding shares in pharmaceutical companies in disguise.

The administration yesterday revealed two other regulations outlining what officials should avoid and what they should report.

The regulations came after a two-month long “self-examination” and “ethic redressing” campaign within the SFDA.

Sounds like a step in the right direction. However, what is making many folks in the industry adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach is that it is unclear at the moment whether these changes will go to the root of the problem. Just adopting tough rules on what not to do will not necessarily fix the problem if the original motivation for corruption is not addressed.

So why was there corruption in the first place? If I knew the answer to that problem, I would probably be given an honorary doctorate at Beida or something. Everyone has their theory as to what causes corruption - big subject - and I do not pretend to know the answer. Low salaries? Cultural reasons? Historical legacy? Stage of economic development? Who knows . . .

So we’ll have to see what happens. As I mentioned to a pharmaceutical client a couple weeks ago, if this shake-up reduces corruption at the agency, then the short-term delays and difficulties will be a small price to pay. However, if these new people eventually adopt the same old bad habits as their predecessors, then the reformers will not be looked upon so favorably.

Read the China Daily article here.