China's drug safety watchdog on January 18, ordered a survey over exports of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) used by the country's chemical pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The State Food and Drug Administration said firms need to report names, license numbers and major export destinations of their API, and whether they have got a European certificate for good manufacturing practice.

China is the world's biggest exporter and second largest producer of API.

In China, chemical engineering enterprises can sell their chemical ingredients products as API without approval from drug safety authorities, which may put drug safety at risk.