Official sacked over lethal fake drug case in northeast China

Xun Fubo, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration of Qiqihar, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has been sacked for negligence of duty over a fake drug case that caused the death of 11 patients.

Ten other government officials and senior business executives, including deputy director of the Heilongjiang provincial food and drug administration, vice-mayor of Qiqihar and director of Food and Drug Administration of Qiqihar, got punishments ranging from serious warnings, having their negligence put on the record to removal from leadership post and removal from public office, according to a decision of the Ministry of Supervision.

The police has detained 10 persons involved in the case, including former general manager of Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. that produced the fake Armillarisin A injection, for further investigation.

"This is a serious fake drug case caused by the use of fake materials, which quality inspectors failed to stop," said a member of the investigation team, participated by the Ministry of Supervision, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Health, as well as State Food and Drug Administration.

"Relevant drug and industry and commerce administrations have also seriously neglected their duties and failed to perform their functions well in this case," he said.

Drug authorities in south China's Guangdong Province reported on May 3 that patients using the injection had developed acute kidney failure symptoms, which prompted immediate investigations into the case.

It has been found out that Wang Guiping, a drug dealer in Taixing of Jiangsu Province, forged production documents and sold "propylene glycol" as a raw material for producing Armillarisin A injection to the Qiqihar drug plant in October 2005. Wang's

"propylene glycol" was actually diglycol, an industrial material which causes acute kidney failure if taken by humans.

The buyer and quality inspector at the drug plant failed to find the problem and allowed the fake raw material to be used in producing Armillarisin A injection.

After using the fake drug, 11 patients in two hospitals in Guangdong developed acute kidney failure and died.

Source: Xinhua