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Herbal drug may be cause of three deaths

By Lan Tian (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-09-21 17:39

China's State Food and Drug Administration and Ministry of Health jointly suspended the sale and use of an herbal injection following three deaths this month which were possibly linked to the medicine.

Three patients in Anhui, Yunnan and Jiangsu provinces died on Sept 7, 12 and 15 after using medicines containing "shuanghuanglian", a herbal injection drug produced by the Duoduo Pharmaceutical Company in northeast China's Heilongjiang province, the National Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Center under the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), said last week.

Related readings:  Drug regulators investigate adverse herbal drug reactions  Three more adverse reactions reported after use of herbal drug  China suspends use of herbal injection after death reported  Probe into deadly herbal jabs 'ongoing'

The three deaths were possibly linked to the use of the herbal injection, according to the SFDA, the country's drug safety watchdog.

Experts from the Ministry of Health and the SFDA have set up an investigation team to look into the incident, the SFDA said.

The company has been ordered to suspend selling the medicine and hospitals have been urged to stop using the injection, said Li Jun, spokesperson of the Heilongjiang Food and Drug Administration.