China praised for quick action on lethal drug

Chinese government agencies have been praised for acting decisively in response to a series of adverse events caused by a drug which is suspected of contamination. The New York Times, which has published a number of articles critical of China's food and drug safety enforcement in recent months, said that the country's State Food and Drug Administration "took immediate action" after receiving reports of six deaths related to human immunoglobin made by Jiangxi Boya Bio-pharmaceutical Co, which some reports have named as Jiangxi Yabo Bio-pharmaceutical Co.

The patients who died were all at the No 2 Hospital of Nanchang University in Jiangxi Province between May 22 and 28. Yu Feng, a spokeswoman for the facility, told the China Daily that "nearly all of them died suddenly, after being on the medicine for two to three days and not showing any adverse signs." She stressed that the product came from a regular supplier and that there had been no previous problems with batches of the drug.

The batch number was identified by the SFDA and the manufacturer, with all 6,383 unused items of the suspect consignment located and withdrawn out of 9,575 items. Initial testing has identified an as yet unnamed problem with some of the tubes in which the human immunoglobin was distributed. Jiangxi Boya told the New York Times that none of its product was produced for export.