By IANS,
Beijing : A total of 76 local officials have been punished for failing to prevent and stop the production of contaminated drug capsules, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said Friday.
The officials were employed at drug supervision agencies in five provinces and the municipality of Chongqing, Xinhua quoted the SFDA saying in a statement.
In April, a China TV reported about several companies having manufactured drug capsules with industrial gelatin, which contains excessive levels of chromium and is illegal to use for making drug capsules. The industrial gelatin was found to be made from leather scraps.
After the scandal broke, the SFDA launched a nationwide inspection on all medications produced and sold.
In May, the SFDA announced that 254 pharmaceutical enterprises, or 12.7 percent of all capsule makers in the country, were found to be producing unsafe drug capsules.