China's food and drug safety watchdog said on Monday that its local offices discovered 33,648 illegal commercial advertisements for drugs from January to March this year.
The illegal ads were referred to market supervisory authorities for investigations and further procedures, according to a statement issued Monday by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).
The statement also mentioned the discovery of 3,239 illegal ads for medical instruments and 6,551 ads for health supplements.
For serious offenses, including the release of ads without prior approval from local food and drug authorities and making material changes to approved content, authorities revoked 15 licenses for drug advertising and 14 for health supplement ads, the statement said.
In addition, 11 temporary sales suspensions were issued for products mentioned in the illegal ads during the period.
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