The government is also investigating how diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical sometimes used to make antifreeze, ended up in cough syrup and toothpaste in Latin America.

In Panama, more than 100 people died last year after consuming cough medicine laced with diethylene glycol, which had been shipped from China mislabeled as harmless syrup.

In announcing the death sentence today, Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said Mr. Zheng was convicted of taking bribes and dereliction of duty, the state-controlled Xinhua News agency reported.

Xinhua said the court had decided that the death sentence was appropriate given the “huge amount of bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public by Zheng’s dereliction of duty.”

The court accused Mr. Zheng of accepting about $850,000 in bribes in exchange for approving drug production licenses.

Worried that some of those drugs may be substandard, China is now reviewing more than 170,000 production licenses issued by food and drug agency over the past decade.

Some drug experts in China agreed that Mr. Zheng deserved the death sentence because abuses in the drug industry became widespread during his tenure.

“The death penalty wouldn’t be excessive punishment for Zheng,” said Wang Yigao, a professor at the Hunan Academy of Sciences. “Zheng was simply using the power given by the state to pursue his personal ambition.”

To see the entire article go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/world/asia/29cnd-drug.html?ex=1338177600&en=1507938a5c62ef56&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink