A 54-year-old man died on Friday after taking a tainted drug nearly two months ago, bringing the death toll from one of China's worst tainted medicine scandals to 11.

The man, surnamed Chen, died of heart failure at about 10:00 AM at the No.3 Zhongshan Hospital in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

Chen had been hospitalized at the end of April with serious hepatitis, said Gao Zhiliang, director of the hospital's infection department. After being treated with a tainted Armillarisni A injection from the Qiqihar No.2 Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., based in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, he showed symptoms of massive organ dysfunction and fell into a coma.

Three other patients in the hospital are still ill after receiving the drug, but their conditions are no longer life-threatening, doctors said.

The drug contained diglycol, which, if taken, causes pain in the alimentary canal and stomach, damaging the kidneys, nervous system and liver.

One ton of diglycol was sold to the factory last November as "propylene glycol", an auxiliary material for producing Armillarisni A injections. 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.

The vendor of the diglycol has been arrested.

The government has ordered a thorough investigation into the incident and has stepped up measures to ensure the pharmaceutical market is properly regulated.

The plant was shut down and the sale of all its drugs has been banned. The State Food and Drug Administration has also ordered all its sold products to be traced and destroyed.

The government has launched a review of pharmaceutical plants nationwide.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2006)