Two senior executives and one purchasing agent of Dalian Jingang-Andi Bio-products Co. Ltd. in northeast China's Liaoning Province, which produced dangerous rabies vaccine that was tested to contain an illegal ingredient, have been detained for deliberate fraud, local authorities said.

Wang Quanfeng, general manager of the company, Luo Huosheng, the company deputy general manager and Yu Jingqing, a purchasing agent were detained after the Dalian Municipal Public Security Bureau received a notice from the medicine watchdog on Feb. 7, according to a statement released by the bureau on Tuesday.

The company was found to have deliberately added nucleic acid, a substance used to enhance the effectiveness of anti-viral drugs, in the production of the rabies vaccine from February to June last year, it said.

All the illegal earnings of the company were confiscated and the company was suspended from production. The medicine production permit of the company was also revoked, it said.

Most of the 360,200 doses of the vaccine the company produced last year had been recalled, said Wang Zeqing, the company spokeswoman earlier this month.

There has been no report of vaccine-related illness so far, she said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)