One more person died on Tuesday morning from a fake injection made by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, adding the death toll from the fake drug to five.

The patient, surnamed Wu, died in the Third Hospital affiliated to Sun Yat-sen University in south China's Guangdong Province, after using the Armillarisni A injection produced by the Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd., a privately-owned business in northeast China's Heilongjiang province. The patient failed to respond to rescue efforts for more than 10 days.

According to a briefing by the State Food and Drug Administration on Monday, the company purchased one ton of "propylene glycol" from a drug dealer named Wang Guiping in September 2005 as auxiliary material for producing Armillarisni A injection.

The "propylene glycol" delivered by Wang is actually diglycol, an industrial material which causes acute kidney failure if taken by humans. The company's quality inspectors failed to discover the problem.

Using diglycol, the company produced the injection, mainly for treating acute or chronic cholecystitis and chronic and atrophic gastritis.

Drug authorities in South China's Guangdong Province reported on May 3 that patients using the injection had developed acute kidney failure symptoms.

The police have detained the suspect Wang Guiping and put other people involved in the case under control.

According to the State Food and Drug Administration, a total of 11 people have fallen victim to the fake drug. Five of the victims are still hospitalized, with two of them relying on respirators, while another one has recovered.

The drug company has been shut down and all its products have been banned from sale and use nationwide.

A circular issued by the Ministry of Health on Monday also ordered stopping using "propylene glycol" produced by Taixing Chemical Plant in east China's Jiangsu province, sold to the Qiqihar drug company by Wang Guiping, in drug production and banning use of drugs made with it.

Source: Xinhua