One of China's largest pharmaceutical firms, Hangzhou-based Kangliyuan Group, has been ordered to stop its operations for its alleged involvement with former head of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) Zheng Xiaoyu.

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A special Central Committee for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) group is probing the alleged involvement of the president of Kangliyuan Group, Tang Xudong, with Zheng, China Business News said yesterday.

A CCDI report says Tang and Zheng shared a very good personal relationship.

Zheng, 63, was removed from his post on June 22, 2005, after being accused of taking bribes during his eight years as China's top drug watchdog. He was detained in December last year, three days before a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China heard the annual work report of CCDI, the top corruption watchdog.

Zheng became SFDA director in 1998, the year the agency was set up, and began a certification system for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).

In 2002, China adopted a single national standard for drugs, replacing the local ones. The government authorized the SFDA to approve most of the medicines before they entered the market.

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