Death toll at 5 from tainted drug as probe expands

By Ji Mi | May 17, 2006, Wednesday |

Print Edition

ONE more person yesterday died of kidney failure blamed on a tainted drug in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, raising the death toll to five, as China intensified its crackdown on the drug's manufacturer and a supplier chemical factory.

Another five victims of the problem medication were undergoing emergency treatment at the No. 3 Hospital Affiliated to the Sun Yat-sen University. Two of them were relying on respirators. Only one of the drug's 11 victims was discharged, reported state media.

Two other patients may have died of the Armillarisin A made by the Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, of the northeast Heilongjiang Province, in addition to the five placed on the hospital's list of victims linked to the drug.

One of them was a 4-year-old girl from Guangdong's Foshan, who died on April 26, one day after she was injected with four ampoules of the drug, and the other a man from the province's Huizhou identified as Huang who died on May 3.

Gao Zhiliang, director of the infectious disease department, said they need to check the cause of the two persons' death.

A total of 26 people with liver disorders were injected with the problem medication at his department, Gao said.

The hospital was the only medical facility in the province that used the suspect drug.

Authorities said Qiqihar bought about 1 ton of chemical labeled as propylene glycol made at the Taixing Chemical Factory last September.

The actual chemical, however, was diethylene glycol, a poisonous industrial-grade substance, and it came from a different chemical plant.

Officials said Qiqihar purchased the chemical from Wang Guiping, who is in police custody.

Wang, a former sales employee of the Taixing company, attached labels saying it was propylene glycol made by his former employer before sending it to the Qiqihar drugmaker, which began incorporating it into the problem drug in March.

Many employees at the Qiqihar drugmaker, including deputy director Guo Xingping, Niu Zhongren, an "experienced worker" of ingredient purchase, and Chen Guifen, testing chief, have been detained. Guangdong police yesterday arrived in Qiqihar to take over the probe.

Also yesterday, the Ministry of Health banned all products made by the Qiqihar drugmaker and propylene glycol by the Taixing chemical factory.

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Death toll at 5 from tainted drug as probe expands

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