CHINA / National

Suspect held as bogus drug kills 4
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-05-15 06:43

Police have detained a Jiangsu Province chemical company employee after four people died and at least six others suffered serious kidney failure from injections containing a substandard ingredient.


The relatives of an unidentified victim of the bogus drug react angrily at the news that the drugs were fake and fatal to the patients. [cctv.com]
Wang Guiping allegedly sold the substance, propylene glycol, to Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a Heilongjiang Province drugmaker now at the center of a medicine scandal.

On Saturday night, police sealed up the Qiqihar factory after the State Food and Drug Administration banned all its products. Jiangsu authorities have sealed up the chemical at Wang's factory in Taixing.

Jiangsu's drug agency posted on its Website a warning for nationwide drugmakers to stop using propylene glycol bought from Wang's company.

The four deaths occurred in southern China's Guangdong Province, where at least six others were listed last night in serious condition, suffering breathing difficulties and paralysis.

Jiangsu official were "well in control" of the substandard chemical, according to Cao Yongwen, director of Qiqihar's Food and Drug Administration.

The Qiqihar drugmaker mainly produces Armillarisin A, used to treat gall bladder, liver and gastric disorders; metamizole sodium, a pain and fever reliever; and calcium gluconate injections for bone growth and other uses.

The company has recalled 600 ampoules of the problem Armillarisin A it had sold in Xi'an, capital of northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, Cao said.

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