A three-member investigation team from the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) is conducting a thorough probe into a problematic injection that has suspiciously killed three and sickened 78 others across the country.

An official with the provincial food and drug administration said Monday that the team arrived over the weekend at the Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co., producer of the injection, in east China's Anhui Province, to carry out the investigation.

The team will investigate raw and supplementary materials of the injection, production process, and examination process for finished products, the official said.

Eighty-one cases of severe reaction in ten provinces, including three deaths, after the use of the drug, clindamycin phosphate glucose injection used to treat bacterial infections, had been reported, according to the Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Center of the SFDA.

The Ministry of Health had issued an urgent circular last week ordering the suspension of using the antibiotic injection produced by the Anhui company since June.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2006)