Spurious diabetes drugs found again in W. China

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-20 09:05

Only two months after fake diabetes drugs killed two people in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, authorities have again found fake medicine being given to patients.

So far, 11 people in Urumqi, capital city of the autonomous region, have taken the drugs, Xinhua reported.

The man believed to be the distributor has not been seen since the incident and is being sought by police.

Batches of drugs, sold under the brand "Tang Xin Su Kang TM Jiao Nang", were found to contain high doses of glibenclamide, a chemical used to lower blood sugar, the food and drug safety watchdog in Urumqi told Xinhua.

Glibenclamide has been banned by the Ministry of Health since January, when a diabetes drug, with the brand name "Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang", killed two patients in Xinjiang's Kashgar and Aksu.

The drugs, produced by Huinan Huifa Pharmaceutical Co. of northeastern Jilin province, were first found in Xinjiang's Bayingol Mongolian autonomous prefecture and were also sold in Urumqi.

Du Bingquan, who claimed to be the Jilin firm's distributor in Urumqi, sold the drugs to a privately-owned hospital, according to a preliminary investigation.

Huinan Huifa Pharmaceutical, meanwhile, said Du is not a certified distributor. Police are on the lookout for him.

Authorities discovered the fake drug was distributed last month from the city of Chaoyang in the northeastern Liaoning province.

China Daily - Xinhua