6 die in China after getting antibody injections
Pastor Dale Morgan
6 die in China after getting antibody injections*
The Associated Press
Monday, June 2, 2008; 1:25 AM
BEIJING -- Six people have died in eastern China after being injected
with medicine commonly used to treat infections such as hepatitis A and
rabies, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday.
The six died after being injected with immune globulin, and the company
that sold the drugs was ordered to stop selling them, said a spokeswoman
at the No. 2 Hospital at Nanchang University in Jiangxi province.
The spokeswoman, who would give only her last name Yu, did not provide
any other details.
Immune globulin is an antibody extracted from blood plasma that is
commonly injected into muscles to treat infections such as hepatitis A
and rabies.
Huang Fu, a spokesman with the news office of the Jiangxi Food and Drug
Administration, confirmed the six had died, but said the deaths were
still being investigated and that drug samples had been sent for
examination.
A notice on the administration's Web site said the people died between
May 22 and May 28.
The drugs were produced by Jiangxi Boya Bio-Pharmaceutical Co., and had
the same batch number, the notice said.
The State Food and Drug Administration and the Health Ministry ordered
the company to suspend sales last week and recall the batch of immune
globulin, it said.
China's pharmaceutical industry is highly lucrative but spottily
regulated, enticing some to try to cash in by substituting fake or
substandard ingredients.
In April, five officials from a Chinese pharmaceutical company that sold
a tainted antibiotic responsible for more than a dozen deaths were
sentenced up to seven years in prison.