Baidu asked to control healthcare adverts after cancer controversy

Baidu Inc must rein in paid-for advertisements within search results after a student died following experimental cancer treatment he found via China's biggest search engine, Chinese regulators said on Monday.

Baidu must clean up in-search healthcare adverts and paid-for search adverts of any kind cannot only be based on the highest bidder, according to a statement from the internet, industry and health regulators, posted on the website of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Such adverts must be restricted to no more than 30 percent of a page of search results, the statement said.

The controversy started when Wei Zexi, 21, died last month of a rare form of cancer. He had turned to Baidu to look online for the best place for treatment, finding a department under the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps which offered an experimental form of treatment that ultimately failed, according to state media.