Almost a third of herbal medicine makers in Guangzhou with a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) have had their licences to produce herbal pieces revoked in a crackdown on drug counterfeiters, local media reported.

Although herbal pieces enterprises can only produce with a GMP, some companies violate production regulations and even outsource products to other unqualified producers.

"We don't know whether those pieces are produced in the qualified conditions, so we have the right to expropriate their GMP," said Lin Yongsheng, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration in Guangzhou.

Producers have to invest at least 10 million yuan ($1.58 million) to get the GMP, meaning there can be several times cost difference between producers with the GMP and producers without the license, an industry veteran said.

Sichuan Shuzhong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a famous herbal pieces producer in Sichuan province, was fined more than 6 million yuan for violating relevant regulations in May 2011. The company was suspended from production for half a year after been fined.

The State Food and Drug Administration introduced the GMP license in 2004, requiring all herbal pieces producers have one by Jan.1. 2008. But by last September, 200 producers still didn’t have the license.

According to local media, raw materials for Chinese traditional medicine come from plants and animals, some of which are directly used in prescriptions, but many producers are notorious for cutting corners on materials or outsourcing to unqualified producers.