Deadly diabetes drug from NE China's Liaoning

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-06 19:31

URUMQI -- The fake diabetes drug linked to two deaths in China's far western region of Xinjiang was found to have come from northeast China's Liaoning Province, the region's authorities announced Friday.

Undated file photo shows the counterfeit diabetes drug that killed two in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region last month. The fatal diabetes drug was found to have come from northeast China's Liaoning Province, the region's authorities announced Friday. [cnr.cn]

The drug, sold under the brand "Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang," was found to contain six times the normal dose of glibenclamide, which is used to help lower blood sugar. Two patients died after taking the fake drug last month.

An investigation found that the drug was sent to Kashi and Aksu, both in Xinjiang, from Chaoyang City, Liaoning by a man named Li Dong, said Yu Shengde, Party secretary of the region's food and drug safety bureau.

The food and drug safety regulator in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region confirmed Li was a distributor of Guangxi Pingnan Pharmaceutical Co.

The company, however, denied it had produced the deadly drugs.

The Ministry of Public Security issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Li, described by the ministry as the chief suspect.

The Xinjiang authorities said 14,400 bottles of the drug entered the region, of which 10,663 bottles had been recovered, including 3,539 taken from customers.

The drug also showed up in Liaoning and the southwestern Sichuan Province. However, no one has been found to have fallen ill after taking the drug outside of Xinjiang.

It is still not clear where the fake drug was produced.