Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 9 ¨C The State Food and Drug Administration and national administrative bodies in public security, industry and commerce, customs and sports will jointly launch a nationwide campaign to check the operation of companies that produce sports drugs such as protein assimilation preparations or peptide hormones. With this campaign, China aims to regulate the market order for sports drug production industry so as to create a fair sports environment for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, said Yan Jiangying, spokesperson at the State Food and Drug Administration, on Thursday.

During the campaign, some key places, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai and Shandong where the Olympic events will be held, will be given greater attention in supervision. In launching the campaign, it is hoped that companies involved in sports drug production will have no illegal production or operation activites, Yan said.

The compaign will proceed in two stages. The first stage will last from now on until the end of this year. During the first stage, China will crack down the illegal operations among drug production companies and close down companies involved in illegal operaton. The second stage will last from January next year to the closing of the Olympic Games. During the second stage, China will consolidate the achievements made in the first stage by regulating the market order for sports drug production, Yan said.

Companies that illegally produce protein assimilation preparations or peptide hormones will be shut down according to related laws and chemical goods production companies that make these drugs without government’s approval will be ordered to close down their business in this aspect. Companies that illegally import and export these drugs will be punished by the China Customs Office and those who violate state laws should bear criminal responsibilities. The sports administrative bodies will be mainly responsible for providing information related with anti-doping work and related technical guidance for the campaign, Yan noted.