Fake diabetes drug kills two in China

China has warned medical institutions across the country to stop using a treatment for diabetes linked to two deaths in the remote Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has warned doctors not to  prescribe a diabetes drug branded Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang because it contained dangerously high levels of the oral antidiabetic agent (OAD) glibenclamide.

The product appears to have been a counterfeited version of a genuine diabetes medication sold in China by Guangxi Pingnan Pharmaceutical Co.

By February 3, the SFDA had seized almost 9,400 bottles of the fake product, include more than 2,600 that were already in the possession of patients.

The police in Xinjiang said they had detained four suspects for allegedly selling the counterfeit diabetes drugs, but had not identified the source of the fakes.

The SFDA has also asked medical institutions to record cases where drugs with that brandname had been used and submit samples to local medicine inspection agencies, according to the Xinhua news agency.