BEIJING (AFP) — Chinese authorities have suspended the sale and use of a brand of antibody drugs after six people died following injections, state media reported.
The unidentified victims died in east China's Jiangxi province after being given human immunoglobulins at a hospital in the provincial capital Nanchang between May 22 and 28, Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday.
It was unclear why the infection-fighting proteins, made by Jiangxi Yabo Bio-Pharmaceutical Co (JYBC), caused the deaths after injections made at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University.
Human immunoglobulins, proteins produced by the body, are used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, when the body turns on itself and attacks its own cells.
The State Food and Drug Administration -- China's drug watchdog -- and the health ministry have suspended the JYBC drugs as an investigation gets under way, Xinhua reported.
China has a poor safety record when it comes to making and selling drugs.
In the most recent scandal, a blood thinner called Heparin that was linked to around 100 deaths in the US was revealed to have been produced in several Chinese factories.
The head of China's food and drug administration was executed last year for accepting 6.5 million yuan (940,000 dollars) in bribes in exchange for granting approvals for hundreds of medicines, some of which proved dangerous.
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