By Lindsay Beck BEIJING, Dec 3 (Reuters) - China is to extend a campaign to clean up its scandal-laden pharmaceuticals industry, the State Food and Drug Administration said on Monday, calling its task curb corruption and counterfeiting "arduous". The country's State Council, or cabinet, launched the campaign in August with the aim of improving the safety and supply of drugs after a series of health scares that reverberated in China's export markets around the world. The campaign, originally to last six months, would now continue for 18 months, said Wu Zhen, deputy head of the Food and Drug Administration. "I can tell you that our team has an arduous task, and it is true that we face huge pressure," Wu told a news conference. "To some extent our personnel and our team is inadequate both in terms of the size of our staff and the resources to fulfil their tasks," he said. China made an example of the former head of the Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, who was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes. The country is also tightening oversight of drug manufacturers after a series of health problems. In one case, dozens of people died in Panama after taking medicines contaminated with a Chinese-made toxin. "I will admit that in such large quantities of exports, there are a small number of companies who haven't obtained a licence but still manage to export their products to foreign countries," Wu said. But he added the onus was on importing countries to strengthen their own regulations. He also cautioned foreign companies to do business only with Chinese drug manufacturers listed on the Administration's Web site, saying if they did so they would not have problems. "We are strict in the regulation of imported drugs, but some other countries do not have such strict regulations and rules. Therefore, there will always be some gaps and some vacuum in regulations and management," Wu said. Since the campaign began, Wu said pharmaceutical companies withdrew their applications for drug registrations in more than 7,300 cases, or 24 percent of the total, indicating the extent of applications that companies may previously have tried to submit, despite their products not meeting standards. "The withdrawals show that pharmaceutical companies are examining themselves and are working hard to improve their products," Wu said. (Editing by Alex Richardson)
