Vice director of the State Food and Drug Administration Wu Zhen said at a national conference on medicine safety that most efforts will focus on the makers of injections.

A series of injection-related medical accidents occurred in 2006, arousing great concern throughout the country, including incidents involving Xinfu antibiotic and Sodium Houttuyfonate injections, the latter for the treatment of children with pneumonia.

At Thursday's meeting in Xiamen, Fujian Province, Wu Zhen said the administration has added injections to its list of high risk medical products since they can lead to the deaths of patients.

Wu Zhen said the watchdog has divided injections into three categories according to their risk rating. The first category includes blood products, multi-component biochemical medicines, vaccines, biological medication and Chinese traditional medicines administered through mainline injection.

Other injections administered by mainline injection are grouped in the second category, Wu said, with all remaining injections making up the third.

Wu said different measures will be adopted to supervise the production of injections across all categories. The first two categories will undergo more severe and frequent examinations, he explained.

In addition to the production process, Wu also urged equal efforts in the supervision of sample testing.

Also at the meeting, the administration revealed it is mulling a scheme to send supervisors from provincial drug watchdogs to pharmaceutical plants to conduct inspections.

It said the plants in the first and second categories must be operated under the supervision that also applies to part of pharmacies producing injections in the third.