Fears about the output of a Heilongjiang drug company grew yesterday with confirmation that a potentially lethal compound whose use in a drug has been blamed for at least five deaths was also used to make four other drugs.
The Qiqihar No2 Pharmaceutical Co made defective batches of armillarisin A using diglycol rather than propylene glycol.
Yesterday, the Heilongjiang Food and Drug Administration told Xinhua that tests showed the company had wrongly used diglycol instead of propylene glycol in five pharmaceutical lines.
The other drugs include a paracetamol for children and a painkiller.
The authority did not say what quantities had been made, nor where they were distributed.
A television report in Heilongjiang said the company knew it had been supplied with diglycol, but that the factory head had ordered that production continue.
