(Yicai Global) July 5 -- China is stepping up the monitoring of drug sales on third-party e-marketplaces, including big players such as Alibaba Group Holding, JD.com and Meituan, to clamp down on increasingly frequent violations, the deputy director of the National Medical Products Administration said today.

"It is vital for third-party platforms to fulfill their responsibilities to enhance the quality of online sales and foster a healthy industrial environment,” Huang Gao said.

Large e-retailers such as Alibaba, JD.com, Meituan, Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu should take the lead in leveraging their own technical and management strengths, checking legal qualifications, improving the management of merchants, abiding by product recall obligations, carrying out risk disposal as well as supervision and cooperating with authorities, Huang said.

Some 12 cases of the unlawful sale of medical devices, involving platforms such as Hangzhou-based Alibaba, Meituan and Pinduoduo, have been made public on the National Medical Products Administration’s website in two separate lists since May.

The watchdog has started to shut down online stores and to remove products from shelves in order to deal with the illegal sales of drugs, medical devices and cosmetics.

Third-party platforms that sell medicines online are required to show the correct information of prescription drugs and rectify any inappropriate content by the end of September, the regulator said.

Editor: Kim Taylor