Death toll rises in fake-drug scandal

Source Xinhua | May 23, 2006, Tuesday |

Print Edition

THE death toll from a fake drug made in northeast China has risen to nine, hospital sources said yesterday.

The nine died after using fake Armillarisin A injections made by the Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd in Heilongjiang Province.

Officials with the Third Hospital affiliated to the Sun Yat-sen University in south China's Guangdong Province confirmed the deaths were linked to the injections.

The fake drug causes pain in the alimentary canal and stomach and damages the kidneys, nervous system and liver.

The hospital is the only one in Guangdong Province that bought the fake drug and has identified 64 people who used it.

Liao Xinbo, vice director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health, said the drug is believed to have killed nine of the 18 people who died after using the injections.

The other nine may have died of diseases and other causes, Liao said.

Cai Daozhang, vice president of the hospital, said five patients who became ill after using the drug are recovering in the hospital.

Guangdong officials said police had taken the general manager, two deputy factory directors in charge of technology and supply, a material buyer and a testing office director from Qiqihar to Guangdong on Sunday for further questioning.

The State Food and Drug Administration said last week that Qiqihar bought a ton of "propylene glycol" from a drug dealer named Wang Guiping last September as an ingredient for producing Armillarisin A injections.

The "propylene glycol" delivered by Wang is actually diglycol, an industrial material which causes acute kidney failure if taken by humans.

The company's quality inspectors failed to discover the problem.

Drug authorities in Guangdong Province reported on May 3 that patients using the injections had developed acute kidney failure symptoms.

The government has shut the Qiqihar plant, banned all its medicines and launched a national overhaul of pharmaceutical plants.

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Death toll rises in fake-drug scandal

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