A Guangdong Province-based newspaper said yesterday the firm had also made fake medications besides Armillarisin A.

The firm, based in a Qiqihar suburb, has more than 300 employees.

The state-owned company was restructured into a private business last year.

The scandal was discovered in April when patients in Guangdong Province developed kidney failure.

The gate of Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd where the fake drugs were produced. [cctv.com]

Between April 22 and 24, two liver patients at a provincial hospital reported kidney failure.

Then "many more" patients reported similar injuries, authorities said.

Guangdong's liver experts blamed the kidney failures on a bad reaction to the Armillarisin A injections made by Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical.

On May 3, Guangdong's FDA and Health Department sealed up all the firm's Armillarisin A injections at the hospital and banned the product from sale.

On the same day, the Guangdong authorities reported the matter to the state drug adverse reaction center.

On May 11, the province began banning all medications from the Qiqihar firm.

Heilongjiang authorities have confiscated nearly 1.2 million ampoules of the Qiqihar drugmaker's injections.

Shanghai hospitals and drug stores said they don't sell the troubled products.