They were accused of producing, selling and buying the bogus medicines and wrapping them in forged packaging belonging to 53 legitimate pharmaceutical companies.

Much of the vaccines were made with starch and water, police said. Although starch and water are not toxic, the fake medicine could still be harmful as users may delay seeing a doctor, said the report.

The suspects were escorted to Heilongjiang on July 31 from Sichuan Province.

Police are still trying to locate all the fake vaccines on the market.

In Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang, 198 patients were confirmed to have been injected with the fake rabies vaccine.

The victims have since been given genuine vaccines and they are now under close observation by the public health authority, said the report.

Two suspects, surnamed He and Pan, confessed to police that they began the trade in late March, the report said.

"We bought 600 boxes of the drug from a man surnamed Zhang in Harbin with prices from 50 yuan (US$6.62) to 70 yuan for each," the report quoted the suspects as saying.

The fake drugs were tagged with the brand of a Beijing-based pharmaceutical factory. The vaccines were then sold to others for 100 yuan to 130 yuan per box, police were told.

Rabies was the top killer of all infectious diseases on the Chinese mainland, said the country's top health authority.

China executed Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, for corruption and dereliction of duty earlier last month.

Under Zheng's watch, dozens of people died of fake or substandard drugs which made it to the market easier because he bypassed normal procedures.