The agency had multiple former names, including
China Food and Drug Administration and
State Food and Drug Administration. The National Medical Products Administration was founded on the basis of the former State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). In March 2013, the former regulatory body was rebranded and restructured as the China Food and Drug Administration, elevating it to a ministerial-level agency. In 2018, as part of China's 2018 government administration overhaul, the name was changed to 'National Medical Products Administration' and merged into the newly created
State Administration for Market Regulation. The headquarters are in
Xicheng,
Beijing. In its first incarnation as the CFDA, the NMPA replaced a large group of overlapping regulators with an entity similar to the
Food and Drug Administration of the United States, streamlining regulation processes for food and drug safety. The National Medical Products Administration is directly under the
State Council of the People's Republic of China, which is in charge of comprehensive supervision on the safety management of food, health food and cosmetics and is the competent authority of drug regulation in
mainland China. On 10 July 2007,
Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of China's State Food And Drug Administration, was executed for taking bribes from various firms in exchange for state licences related to product safety. == Main responsibilities ==