China has banned the sale of a pharmaceutical company in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, which was accused of producing injection fluid that causes kidney failure.

All of medicines produced by Qiqihar No. 2 pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. have been banned from marketing or using and sealed up for investigation following reports that its Armillarisni A Injection may cause kidney exhaustion, as required by the State Food and Drug Administration.

On May 3, drug authorities in South China's Guangdong Province reported that patients using the injection fluid have acute kidney failure symptoms.

The medicine is mainly for treating acute or chronic cholecystitis and chronic and atrophic gastritis.

Investigators have gone to Heilongjiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, where raw materials of the medicine are from, with initial results indicating that the medicine is fake as the production process has safety problems.

Police has stepped in to further the investigation.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2006)