The Shanghai drug regulator over the recent two days found and confiscated at least thousands of boxes of drugs produced by the Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co, whose dangerous drugs killed five people and caused several patients' kidney failure, the local media reported today.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration is searching for the products that have already been sold to customers.

The administration found a pharmaceutical company that bought 6,300 boxes of Compound Ammonium Glycyrrhizinate Injection, made by the Qiqihar drug-maker, from an Anhui pharmaceutical company earlier this year.

The local company then sold 304 boxes to a budget drugstore in Yangpu District, whose Chinese name is "Kaixinren," and 30 boxes to another in Zhabei District named "Bieyanghong."

The administration has ordered the two drugstores, who have already sold 284 boxes, to inform buyers to stop using the drug.

It also stopped another nine drugstores from selling Shuanghuanglian Oral Liqiud, which is produced by the Qiqihar drugmaker.

The Ministry of Health banned all products made by the Qiqihar drug-maker and propylene glycol made by Taixing chemical factory yesterday.

Purchasers of the Quqiar made propylene glycol, a component in Armillarisin A, failed to check the necessary certificates from the Taixing Chemical Company last September.

Wang Guiping, a former Taixing employee, attached labels that said the propylene glycol was made by his former employer, before sending it to the Qiqihar drugmaker which incorporated it into the drug in March.

Many employees at the Qiqihar drugmaker, including deputy director Guo Xingping, Niu Zhongren, an "experienced" chemical component purchaser, and Chen Guifen, testing chief, have been detained. Guangdong police yesterday arrived in Qiqihar to take over the investigation.

(Shanghai Daily May 17, 2006)