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22 nabbed for producing toxic drug capsules

Xinhua, April 17, 2012

• Police in east China's Zhejiang Province said Monday they have captured 22 people who allegedly produced and sold pharmaceutical capsules containing excessive levels of chromium.

  Authorities in Xinchang county, Zhejiang province, has ordered all capsule manufacturers to suspend production. [Photo: Xinhua]

  
  
  

  By Monday noon, police had detained 11 suspects from four capsule manufacturing companies in Xinchang county, according to a spokesman from the county's public security bureau.

  On Sunday, an investigative report from China Central Television revealed that several companies in Xinchang, a major pharmaceutical production hub in China, had manufactured drug capsules with industrial gelatin, which contains a greater amount of chromium than edible gelatin and is illegal to use for making drug capsules.

  The report showed that the industrial gelatine used to manufacture the capsules was made from scraps of leather material. The report said the gelatin came from companies in northern Hebei Province and eastern Jiangxi Province.

  Local police will investigate 43 capsule manufacturing companies in Xinchang and suspend operations for those found to be operating outside the law, the spokesman said.

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