A former department head at China's drug regulation agency was sentenced to death Friday on bribery charges.

Cao Wenzhuang, a department director at the State Food and Drug Administration, was given the death sentence with a two-year reprieve on charges of accepting bribes and neglecting official duties, said his lawyer, Gao Zicheng.

While the sentence was unusually harsh given the charges, such suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.

Cao, who oversaw the pharmaceutical registration department, had been secretary to Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of the agency, in the 1980s. Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

In the pharmaceuticals department, Cao, 45, had the power to approve pharmaceutical production in China from 2002 to 2006.

He was charged with accepting 2.34 million yuan (US$307,000) in bribes from two medical companies, which were based in Jilin and Guangdong provinces and were seeking approval to sell their products. He was also charged with neglecting his duties in approving drugs.

In its judgment, the Beijing No. 1 People's Intermediate Court said the death penalty was warranted given the "huge bribes involved, and his refusal to confess ... and reluctance to return the money," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

But he was given a two-year reprieve because he provided evidence that helped with the investigation of other cases, Xinhua said. It gave no details.

"Cao does not admit to taking any bribes," Gao, the lawyer, said in a telephone interview. It was not immediately clear if Cao would appeal.