The health authorities in southwest China's Sichuan Province have found 215 bottles of a counterfeit diabetes drug that last month caused two deaths and hospitalized nine others in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

No one has been reported sick after taking the drug so far, said a spokesman of the provincial food and drug safety bureau on Wednesday.

The spokesman said 144 bottles have been sold out, while 71 bottles have been recovered from pharmacies and customers.

Most of the fake drugs were found in a drug store in Jiangyou City. They were also found in Nantong and Guangyuan cities.

According to initial investigation, the deadly drugs entered Sichuan market from the northeastern Liaoning Province.

Sichuan will continue efforts to search for the drug, the spokesman said. Local police have begun investigating the case.

The counterfeit drug, branded "Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang," was confirmed to contain an illegal chemical ingredient "glibenclamide," which is used to help lower blood sugar. But the counterfeit drugs contained six times the normal dose of the chemical.

The Kashi authorities, in the western part of Xinjiang, reported two people died on Jan. 17 and 19 after taking the drugs. Four others, in stable condition, are receiving treatment in a hospital of Kashi.

According to the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), police had sealed up 9,391 bottles in Xinjiang as of Sunday, 2,663 of which were seized from customers.

The SFDA said on Monday that four suspects had been detained in Xinjiang for selling the deadly drug but gave no details about the suspects.

Authorities have said that their preliminary investigation showed that the counterfeit drug was not produced in Xinjiang, but they have so far failed to find its source.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2009)