Qiu Zuyi, the former boss of the Chinese pharmaceutical company whose substandard antibiotic injection products allegedly killed more than 10 people, committed suicide on Nov. 1, according to a report in Friday's China Securities Journal.

 

Qiu, former general manager of the Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co. in east China's Anhui Province, was found dead in his office last Wednesday evening, the report said.

 

Company staff refused to discuss the suicide, but an anonymous municipal official in Fuyang, capital of Anhui where the company is based, confirmed the development on Thursday, according to the newspaper.

 

Qiu has been under heavy pressure since the case was exposed.

 

The first report on the serious side effects of the clindamycinphosphate glucose injection, known as Xinfu, came from Qinghai Province in northwest China in late July. More reports then reached the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) from Guangxi, Zhejiang, Shandong and other provinces.

 

The SFDA banned the use of the product and ordered its recall in August after a six-year-old girl died in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, after an injection.

 

SFDA investigations discovered that the company had failed to observe approved production standards by reducing the sterilization temperature and shortening sterilization time.

 

On Oct. 16, the SFDA revoked Huayuan's license for injections and Qiu was removed from his position.

 

Despite the death of over 10 patients nationwide, Qiu was not charged. He continued to show up at the company each day while his fate was being decided.

 

Following the incident, the SFDA carried out 35 unannounced inspections of drug manufacturers. As a result, fifteen companies have had their Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Certificates revoked and another 13 were ordered to rectify production defects.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2006)