Zheng Xiaoyu, China’s former FDA chief, was executed recently for taking bribes and allowing lethally tainted pharmaceuticals to be sold to his countrymen. Thus far, ten fatalities have been identified in the imbroglio. Zheng makes it eleven.
Ironically, and most instructively, Zheng was, 15 to 20 years ago, the zealous reformer who successfully argued for the creation of the agency whose favors he ultimately sold, as this article in the NY Times explains.
Was Zheng originally a sincere reformer with his countrymen’s interests at heart, or was the whole thing a vicious scheme for self-enrichment from the get-go? Well, guess what?
It doesn’t make any difference. The only difference regulation made was: (a) Zheng got rich; and (b) Zheng got executed. The spending and deception continue, at the expense of shareholders, taxpayers, and consumers. Only the government does it, instead of leaving the producers to do it (and pay for it) themselves.
I expect Zheng must be proud, wherever he is now.
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I liked this comment: “He was smart in a technical way,†says a drug company executive who knew him for more than 20 years. “But he didn’t have political skills. He should have never gone into government.â€
Political skills? Yes, the difference between Zheng and your average big pharma lackey is that the latter plays the game very well. How crude to take big bags of money. Peasant!
Sadly, instead of embracing alternatives to centralized state control of drug “approval,” China will likely just tighten things up and put in some folks with “political skills.”
A shame, too, because with a little branding (Dr. Zheng’s medicine 100% untainted!), a little private inspection company (Xiaoyu’s private inspection services — don’t buy medicine without our seal of approval!) and some nice, liberal plaintiff’s tort law (Hurt? Injured? Need Help? Dial 1-800-YourZhang now for JUSTICE!) China could have a clean, efficient and highly profitable drug industry. Who knows, maybe unlike our homegrown one, China’s would have made drugs that actually help people. (Some bigpharma rep is belly laughing right now. “Ha Ha. Where’s the money in that?” He says.)
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