Zheng Xiaoyu
| Zheng Xiaoyu | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Director of the State Food and Drug Administration | |
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In office 2003–2005 |
|
| Director of the State Drug Administration | |
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In office 1998–2003 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Chinese: 郑筱萸; pinyin: Zhèng Xiǎoyú December 21, 1944 Fuzhou |
| Died | July 10, 2007 (aged 62) |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Political party | Communist Party of China |
| Alma mater | Fudan University |
| Known for | Taking bribes and dereliction of duty |
Zheng Xiaoyu (Chinese: 郑筱萸; pinyin: Zhèng Xiǎoyú; December 21, 1944 – July 10, 2007) was the director of the State Food and Drug Administration of the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2005. He was sentenced to death for corruption and allowing possibly tainted products in Mainland China in the first instance trial at Beijing No.1 Intermediate Court on May 29, 2007. He was executed on July 10, 2007.
Born in Fuzhou, Fujian on December 21, 1944, Zheng Xiaoyu eventually studied to receive his bachelor's degree in biology from Fudan University in 1968. He joined the Communist Party of China in November 1979.
Zheng was director of the State Pharmaceutical Administration from 1994 to 1998, head of the State Drug Administration from 1998 to 2003, and director of the State Food and Drug Administration from 2003 to 2005.
In May 2007, Zheng was convicted of taking bribes and dereliction of duty and sentenced to death by a trial court in Beijing. These corrupt practices are believed to have led to 40 deaths in Panama from cough syrup that contained diethylene glycol in place of glycerin. Zheng had been convicted of personally approving unproven and unsafe medicines after taking bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies while working as the former head of China's ministry of food and drug safety, bribes totaling more than 6.49 million RMB (or a rough equivalent of 850,000 USD), approvals which resulted in at least a hundred patient deaths, directly and indirectly. Some claims on the Chinese internet put the deaths in the thousands. It was also discovered that during the eight-year period of drug oversight, Zheng personally ordered approvals of more than 150,000 new medicines, an amount 134-times that of the U.S. FDA (which approves, on average, ca. 140 new medicines annually). Most of those 150,000 medicines were the products of the eight pharmaceutical companies that bribed Zheng. A single unsafe medication of Anhui Hua Yuan (华源) Company, since closed, resulted in 14 patient deaths, hundreds being permanently disabled, and several thousand more falling seriously ill;Anhui Hua Yuan's CEO committed suicide before his arrest. Zheng's trial resulted in a death sentence.
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