China's top legislature has begun a draft amendment to the Advertising Law that proposes tougher regulation on health care products advertising.
According to the revision, health care products should clearly be labeled with the ingredients' name, dosage, and function.
Healthcare products are also not allowed to be introduced as medicine or to be reported to have medical functions.
Cong Bin, an official from the law committee of China's top legislature says: "As many health care products in China contain traditional medical ingredients, the mixing of ingredients may result in new functions. Regulations on contents of health care products should be further strengthened, and producers using the unlisted ingredients would be required to register. Meanwhile, the revisions further regulate the labels and product introductions of health care products to avoid misleading consumers."
The revised law also stipulates that healthcare programs on TV or Radio are not allowed to promote specific health products.
The stricter revision comes as health care products see a rapid increasing in the market, especially among senior citizens who tend to believe that these products can actually cure chronic diseases.
Wang Dahong is the secretary general of the market committee of China's health care products association.
"Some consumers believe that the health care products are reliable to cure disease, which is a misunderstanding of consumers. There is also advertisement misleading among producers. The law stating that health care products should not claim medical function is a way to inform consumers to avoid cheating. Also, the risks for producers' exaggeration of function become bigger, so the law could regulate the producers' behavior."
According to Wang, the market value for health care products here in China amounts to one trillion yuan per year.
For CRI, I'm Yu Yang.
