China's drug safety watchdog and Baidu.com, a leading Chinese search engine, on Monday signed an agreement of partnership to cooperate in combating fake drugs.
Under the deal between the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) and Baidu.com, the administration will provide a database of qualified medicines and licensed online pharmacies to the search engine, and information from the database will be listed in higher positions among search results.
The cooperation will promote safe and convenient use of medicines among the public via the Internet by providing credible drug information online and cracking down on false information, said Sun Xianze, deputy head of the SFDA.
Moreover, the website will label search results of qualified online pharmacies with a mark of verification, in order to ensure safe online drug purchases and sales.
According to an online demonstration at the signing ceremony, relevant information is already available from Baidu.com.
Sun said the two parties will also work together in the future to create an online query platform for the public.
The administration will also maintain its vigorous efforts in combating fake drug production and sales, seriously punish those involved in online sales of fake drugs and publish details of such violations, according to Sun.
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