A drug which had not been manufactured correctly claimed the
lives of five people and has left?five others in serious
condition in Guangzhou, officials said yesterday.
Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Company in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province produced the doses of
Armillarisini A injections, a drug used for the treatment of
gallstones and gastritis, the State Food and Drug Administration
(SFDA) said yesterday.
There's been no reports of people outside the capital of south
China's Guangdong Province being exposed to the counterfeit
drug.
The six seriously ill people are being treated for kidney
failure at No. 3 Hospital affiliated to Sun Yat-sen University in
Guangzhou; and Gao Zhiliang, a senior doctor at the hospital's
infectious diseases department, said their condition could
worsen.
The SFDA said all medicines made by the company had been sealed
nationwide.
Wang Guiping, a detained suspect, is thought to have sold a ton
of diethylene glycol describing it as propylene glycol, a chemical
used in the production of Armillarisini A to the Qiqihar firm last
September. Wang is accused of forging pharmaceutical registration
certificates.
Quality control inspection at the company failed to detect the
rogue chemical and it was used in the drug making process,
according to the SFDA.
The drugs manufactured by the company appeared in Guangzhou and
Beijing last year after being purchased in a public bidding
organized by provincial medicine centers.
In Beijing, all the medicines produced by the company have been
sealed in 85 drug stores and medical institutions, sources with the
Beijing Drug Administration said.
Anyone using the drug is advised to stop and report to the
administration.
In Shanghai no dangerous injections been found, said the city's
Drug and Food Administration Bureau.
(China Daily May 16, 2006)
