China says fatal drug outside scope of regulators
Source: Reuters
BEIJING, May 8 (Reuters) - Chinese companies accused of making and selling a fake drug ingredient that killed dozens of people in Panama did not fall under the nation's medicine inspectors, Beijing said, leaving unclear what agency bore responsibility. The New York Times reported on the weekend that the Taixing Glycerine Factory in eastern China's Jiangsu province had passed off cheap diethylene glycol as glycerin, an additive in many medicines and foods. The chemical was sold to CNSC Fortune Way, a Beijing-based trading company, and then eventually to Panama, where it went into bottles of cold medicine. Investigators believe the cheap, toxic substitute was responsible for at least 100 deaths and possibly many more. But on Tuesday, China's Foreign Ministry said the country's State Food and Drug Administration had no control over the companies. "The State Food and Drug Administration has investigated this matter, and concluded that the Taixing city glycerine factory was not classed as a pharmaceutical production business and CNSC Fortune Way was not classed as a pharmaceutical sales business," the ministry stated in a fax. Neither company "came within the inspection scope" of the agency, it said. The factory produced a substitute for glycerine that was classed as a "chemical industry raw material" and not a medicine ingredient, it added. It was not immediately clear if the Chinese authorities were investigating the companies. The foreign ministry said China strictly enforces rules about medicine ingredients, but it did not specify which agency was responsible for the case. China has grappled with its own string of tragedies from fake and poor-quality medicines in recent years, drawing widespread citizens' complaints about a pharmaceutical industry beset by corruption and mismanagement. At least 18 people died after being administered a drug containing diethylene glycol in 2006. And Zheng Xiaoyu, head of the national drug watchdog from 1994 to 2005, was put under custody for corruption probes late last year.
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