Drug lord jailed for life

By Li Xinran  |   2008-6-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A KEY figure in a fake drug scandal linked to 14 deaths has been sentenced to life imprisonment, Nanjing-based Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.

A court in Taizhou, Jiangsu Provnice, on May 23 found Wang Guiping guilty of selling fake drugs, endangering public security and falsifying registered capital.

Fourteen patients have died after taking fake drugs in a hospital in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, since April 2006. The story made headlines nationwide and led to an investigation of the country's drug administration.

An investigation showed that the drug Armillarisni A contained a chemical called diglycol that can cause kidney failure. Wang had passed it off as a normal ingredient to its producer Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, the court said.

Wang reportedly made a profit of about US$900 from the deal.

The court also fined Wang 400,000 yuan (US$57,000) and confiscated about 290,000 yuan of profit from his diglycol sales.

Wang was also found selling imitation chemical materials to at least two chemical plants.

Victims and their family members have sued the No. 3 Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University for a combined 20 million yuan.