China has cornered the global market for vitamins

       By Tim Johnson
       McClatchy Newspapers
 

       SHIJIAZHUANG, China - If you pop a vitamin C tablet in your mouth,
it's a good bet it came from China. Indeed, many of the world's vitamins are
now made in China.

       In less than a decade, China has captured 90 percent of the U.S.
market for vitamin C, driving almost everyone else out of business.

       Chinese pharmaceutical companies also have taken over much of the
world market in the production of antibiotics, analgesics, enzymes and
primary amino acids. According to an industry group, China makes 70 percent
of the world's penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin and 35 percent of its
acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol), as well as the bulk
of vitamins A, B12, C and E.

       In the wake of a pet food scandal, in which adulterated wheat gluten
from China led to the deaths of thousands of pets in North America, and
other instances of food and toothpaste tampering, China's vitamin producers
are reaching out to reassure U.S. consumers that their vitamins are safe.

       Whether that's true isn't clear, however. Foreign food-safety experts
say China's larger companies have reputations to protect. The question is
how they maintain quality control.

       In this pharmaceutical hub, a two-hour train ride south of Beijing,
managers at what may be the world's largest vitamin C factory said they're
constantly improving quality control to keep pace with the tenfold increase
in production this decade.
 

       "We used to only comply with domestic standards. Now we must comply
with international standards," said Liu Lifeng, an aide to the general
manager at the Weisheng Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

       Food and drug safety inspectors drop in at the plant from time to
time.

       "The authorities come unexpectedly without telling us," added Tian
Yumiao, the senior director of the quality control department of Weisheng.

       But the inspectors aren't exactly neutral guardians of public health.
They work for the city government, which is a part owner of the parent
company of Weisheng Pharmaceutical. That kind of relationship between food
and drug inspectors and China's booming agricultural and pharmaceutical
industries is coming to the fore as an issue in the food safety debate. The
local government in this thriving city of 2 million people would suffer if
it did anything to hurt the growth of local vitamin and drug producers, and
local officials might be reluctant to admit that a public safety issue had
arisen.
 

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