NANNING - Police in south China said Saturday that they have detained 39 people for making and selling fake medication and health care products, the latest in a flood of counterfeit drug scandals exposed in China over the past few months.

After four months of investigation, police busted a 46-million-yuan ($7.3 million) counterfeit drug network based in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, an official with the city's police bureau said.

During two raids, in September and December, respectively, police seized 69 dens selling fake drugs, 20 warehouses, a production line and a packaging base.

The network produces and sells 710 kinds of drugs and health care products, including the painkiller tramadol hydrochloride, amoxicillin, indigestion pills as well as male enhancement supplements.

Many of the fake drugs were made from starch and pig liver powder, which are both useless in curing disease and could delay treatment, police said.

The Ministry of Public Security said last month that police had seized 2 billion yuan worth of phoney pharmaceuticals and packaging materials in a nationwide raid on counterfeit drugs.

They arrested 1,770 suspects and captured more than 420 million sets of counterfeit trademarks, packages and fake-proof labels during the raid.

The suspects were found to have used banned chemicals as ingredients for bogus medicines, re-packaged expired pharmaceuticals, and forged qualification papers, the ministry said.