ahlam1399
05-23-2016, 06:36 AM
Promises of higher salaries and greater freedom at work are luring officials from China's high-profile ***** watchdog to the companies they had regulated, a blow just as the country looks to tighten oversight and drive in**vation.
China wants to ***** down on substandard ***** and healthcare as it seeks to produce more of the ***** consumed in the country and to build up its pharmaceutical exports. It also has ambitions to develop cutting-edge ***** to combat major diseases, from cancer to Ebola.
But in the past two months alone, high-profile scandals concerning a criminal vaccine ring and experimental cancer treatments have exposed what Li Guoqing, head of the China Food and Drug Administration’s (CFDA) drug supervision department, in March publicly called "dead spaces and blind zones.”
Current and former officials at the CFDA told Reuters the staffing issues are hampering its ability to police the world's second-largest ***** market, including the monitoring and testing of new medicines.
"The brain drain of skilful people definitely impacts the CFDA's ability to operate, especially for example its ability to evaluate new *****," said Cheng Gang, 44, a former CFDA section chief who left to set up his own ***** company at the end of 2014.
He said senior staff eventually moved on for bigger pay packages at drug companies, where he said they could earn more than 600,000 yuan ($92,000) a year, versus around 120,000 yuan at the regulator.
One current senior official at the CFDA, who declined to be named because he is **t authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters some areas like drug supervision and front line enforcers were particularly hard hit. An analysis by Reuters of professional websites such as LinkedIn China show that departures have included section heads and senior enforcement ******rs.
At the heavily guarded Beijing ****** block that houses the CFDA's headquarters, a tightly controlled work environment has done little to stem the flow of departures. Cheng said staff were **t allowed to go online or even use messaging apps when he was there, though it could **t be ascertained whether that was still the case.
In some ways, the CFDA is a victim of its own progress - those with regulatory experience are increasingly in high demand in China partly because drug firms are facing an ever more complex regulatory environment. They leave the CFDA for multinational companies, local drugmakers, consultancies and investment firms.
Ge Li, CEO of Shanghai-based drug research firm WuXi AppTec, said only around a third of ***** approved in the United States have made it through the approval process in China.
"China wants to set a standard, but it also needs to have the expertise and the talent," he said.
In a speech earlier this year, CFDA boss Bi Jingquan, put the size of his drug evaluation center at 130 people, versus 5,000 at the FDA in the United States.
A third of front line drug evaluation staff have left in the last three years, he added, moving to a private sector where salaries could be as much as ten times higher.
"We have been drained of a lot of our core people," said Bi. The CFDA is candid about the challenge - it said in a statement to Reuters that it needs to offer higher salaries and improved status to deal with the staff shortage.
"Being able to evaluate and approve ***** is what decides the competitiveness of a country's pharmaceutical market," the watchdog said.
In his comments in response to the illegal vaccines scandal in March, the CFDA’s Li was stark in his assessment of the talent problem. "There aren't even 500 people with the aptitude to inspect *****," he said. "Regulatory targets are many, but there are few people on the ground."
The CFDA declined to provide Bi or Li for interview for this story.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/YEor/~4/JIZiVbQjAWg
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/YEor/~3/JIZiVbQjAWg/122060-Chinas-*****-watchdog-struggles-as-senior-staff-lured-away-by-industry)
China wants to ***** down on substandard ***** and healthcare as it seeks to produce more of the ***** consumed in the country and to build up its pharmaceutical exports. It also has ambitions to develop cutting-edge ***** to combat major diseases, from cancer to Ebola.
But in the past two months alone, high-profile scandals concerning a criminal vaccine ring and experimental cancer treatments have exposed what Li Guoqing, head of the China Food and Drug Administration’s (CFDA) drug supervision department, in March publicly called "dead spaces and blind zones.”
Current and former officials at the CFDA told Reuters the staffing issues are hampering its ability to police the world's second-largest ***** market, including the monitoring and testing of new medicines.
"The brain drain of skilful people definitely impacts the CFDA's ability to operate, especially for example its ability to evaluate new *****," said Cheng Gang, 44, a former CFDA section chief who left to set up his own ***** company at the end of 2014.
He said senior staff eventually moved on for bigger pay packages at drug companies, where he said they could earn more than 600,000 yuan ($92,000) a year, versus around 120,000 yuan at the regulator.
One current senior official at the CFDA, who declined to be named because he is **t authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters some areas like drug supervision and front line enforcers were particularly hard hit. An analysis by Reuters of professional websites such as LinkedIn China show that departures have included section heads and senior enforcement ******rs.
At the heavily guarded Beijing ****** block that houses the CFDA's headquarters, a tightly controlled work environment has done little to stem the flow of departures. Cheng said staff were **t allowed to go online or even use messaging apps when he was there, though it could **t be ascertained whether that was still the case.
In some ways, the CFDA is a victim of its own progress - those with regulatory experience are increasingly in high demand in China partly because drug firms are facing an ever more complex regulatory environment. They leave the CFDA for multinational companies, local drugmakers, consultancies and investment firms.
Ge Li, CEO of Shanghai-based drug research firm WuXi AppTec, said only around a third of ***** approved in the United States have made it through the approval process in China.
"China wants to set a standard, but it also needs to have the expertise and the talent," he said.
In a speech earlier this year, CFDA boss Bi Jingquan, put the size of his drug evaluation center at 130 people, versus 5,000 at the FDA in the United States.
A third of front line drug evaluation staff have left in the last three years, he added, moving to a private sector where salaries could be as much as ten times higher.
"We have been drained of a lot of our core people," said Bi. The CFDA is candid about the challenge - it said in a statement to Reuters that it needs to offer higher salaries and improved status to deal with the staff shortage.
"Being able to evaluate and approve ***** is what decides the competitiveness of a country's pharmaceutical market," the watchdog said.
In his comments in response to the illegal vaccines scandal in March, the CFDA’s Li was stark in his assessment of the talent problem. "There aren't even 500 people with the aptitude to inspect *****," he said. "Regulatory targets are many, but there are few people on the ground."
The CFDA declined to provide Bi or Li for interview for this story.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/YEor/~4/JIZiVbQjAWg
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/YEor/~3/JIZiVbQjAWg/122060-Chinas-*****-watchdog-struggles-as-senior-staff-lured-away-by-industry)