Four people have been killed and six others are in a serious condition in Guangzhou after using a drug containing the wrong chemical, officials said yesterday.

Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Company in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province used the chemical to produce a batch of Armillarisini A injections a drug used for the treatment of gallstones and gastritis the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said yesterday.

There has been no report of people outside the capital of south China's Guangdong Province being affected.

The six seriously ill people are being treated for kidney failure at No 3 Hospital affiliated to Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou; and Gao Zhiliang, a senior doctor at the hospital's infectious diseases department, said their condition could worsen.

The SFDA said all medicines made by the company have been sealed nationwide.

Wang Guiping, the prime suspect who has been detained, is believed to have sold a ton of diethylene glycol as propylene glycol a chemical used in the production of Armillarisini A to the Qiqihar firm last September.

Wang is accused of forging pharmaceutical registration certificates.

The quality control inspector at the company failed to detect the wrong chemical, which eventually led to its use in the drug, according to the SFDA.

The drugs made by the company made their way to Guangzhou and Beijing last year after winning a public bidding organized by the provincial medicine bidding centres.

In Beijing, all the medicines made by the company have been sealed in 85 drug stores and medical institutions, sources with the Beijing Drug Administration said.

Residents who are using the drugs have been urged to stop doing so and report to the administration.

In Shanghai, no injections containing substandard propylene glycol has been found, said the city's Drug and Food Administration Bureau.

(China Daily May 16, 2006)