CHINA GIVES GREENLIGHT TO M'SIAN PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS

KEPALA BATAS (Malaysia), Jan 28 (Bernama) -- China has agreed to facilitate
an easy entry of Malaysian medical and pharmaceutical products, Health Minister
Liow Tiong Lai said Tuesday.

He said that both countries had also agreed to set up a special secretariat
to identify such products.

Since 1991, he said, the ministry had approved over 200,000 medicines and
health products but none had penetrated the Chinese market because of the strict
procedure and clinical testing required by their authorities.

About 2,000 Chinese products, meanwhile, were already in the Malaysian
maket, he told reporters after the Chinese New Year open house hosted by Penang
MCA here.

Kepala Batas is a town in the northern part of Penang, Malaysia, in Seberang
Perai Utara district.

Following a bilateral negotiation recently, Liow said, China had agreed to
give a greenlight to Malaysian products already approved by the ministry without
too much bureaucracy and second testing.

With this, the local pharmaceutical industry could expand their market to
China, he said.

-- BERNAMA