China to scour pharmacies for doping ahead of Games

BEIJING, June 29 (Reuters) China's drug watchdog plans to carry out a sweeping inspection of the country's pharmacies to ensure they do not sell performance-enhancing drugs in the run-up to next year's Olympic Games, state media said today.

The State Food and Drug Administration will inspect all drugstores and medical supply companies, focusing mainly on Beijing and other host cities for the Games, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

''We must be alert to the performance enhancing drugs to create an environment of fair competition for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,'' it cited the drugs regulator as saying.

The agency will require pharmacies to post signs saying that the sale of doping drugs is prohibited, and any drugs containing banned substances will need to be labelled with warnings for athletes, Xinhua said.

Several doping scandals in the 1990s blotted the reputation of Chinese athletes and marked improvement in their performances in recent years continues to raise eyebrows -- which a senior Chinese anti-doping official told Reuters this month was unfounded and unfair.

Reuters RS GC2213