Three men were sentenced to jail terms ranging from ten months to two years for selling bogus blood protein products in east China's Jiangxi Province, according to local authorities on Wednesday.

The Intermediate People's Court of Shangrao City ruled that Feng Lianghong, Zhang Jinhong and Lan Xin were guilty of buying and selling 822 bottles of bogus blood protein, earning a profit of more than 90,000 yuan (US$11,842.1).

The fake blood protein was discovered on May 18, 2006, in a hospital in Hengfeng county, where a patient developed a fever after being injected with the product.

The men were caught on August 25, 2006. They were also fined 20,000 yuan (US$2,631.6) to 50,000 yuan (US$6,578.9).

Blood protein, or human albumin made from human blood plasma, is used after surgery and to treat liver or kidney failure. Counterfeit doses can be lethal.

"It could lead to death if the patients were allergic to it," Jin Shaohong, deputy head with the National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products, was quoted by China Central Television as saying.

China has 33 companies producing blood-based products. Due to a lack of human blood plasma, they can only make 13 million bottles of human albumin each year.

China's drug watchdog has tightened controls on blood-based medicines requiring every batch of human immunoglobulin to be checked as beginning from June 1.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2007)