Authorities yesterday said four more drugs made by a Heilongjiang Province drug-maker in the center of a medical scandal are tainted with a poisonous industrial ingredient.

Diethylene glycol, which was discovered in Armillarisin A that has killed at least five people, was also found in another four drugs, the provincial Food and Drug Administration said. The four are Tongxinshu, an enema fluid used as a painkiller in children; Puerarin, which is injected for blood vessel diseases; Yansuan Naifupan, injected to treat pain; and Shuqisong, injected to treat arthritis and respiratory system disorders.

A total of 12 batches of the five drugs made by the Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd are tainted, the administration said.

A Jiangsu Province farmer, Wang Guiping, sold about 1 ton of diethylene glycol under labels saying it was propylene glycol made by the province's Taixing Chemical Factory, initial investigation showed.

Wang, a former salesman at the Taixing Chemical Factory, bought the diethylene glycol from a factory in Changzhou, a neighboring city in Jiangsu. The Taixing factory is a producer of dyes. Wang is in police custody.

Niu Zhongren, an experienced worker in charge of purchase at the drug-maker, bought the chemical at more than 6,000 yuan (US$750) per ton. The imported propylene glycol was about 17,000 yuan per ton.

The company mixed the diethylene glycol in at least 72,000 ampoules of Armillarisin A in March, officials said.

Niu and six others at the drug-maker, including three top company officials, have been detained.

The No.3 Hospital Affiliated to Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong's provincial capital Guangzhou bought 3,600 ampoules of the tainted Armillarisin, Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday. The hospital used 887 ampoules on its patients.

The hospital said five people had died of kidney failure caused by the injections.

(Shanghai Daily May 19, 2006)