China Arrests Four After Fake Diabetes Drug Kills Two People

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- China detained four people in the western region of Xinjiang for selling fake diabetes medicine linked to the deaths of two patients, the country’s drug regulator said.

China has also issued a national alert to stop use of the “Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang” brand medicine, and yesterday sent a work team to Xinjiang, according to a statement from the State Food and Drug Administration dated Feb. 1.

The statement gave no further details of the four people arrested, and no details about the two deaths in Xijiang. Xinhua News Agency reported that the two patients died on Jan. 17 and Jan. 19.

The medicine sold in Xinjiang is a counterfeit knockoff of the Tang Zhi Ning brand, manufactured in the southwestern province of Guangxi by Guangxi Pingan Pharmaceutical, according to the statement. The agency yesterday also dispatched a working group to Guangxi.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dune Lawrence in Beijing at dlawrence6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net