Nine people have died from using fake drug made by a Chinese pharmaceutical company in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, hospital sources said Monday.

The nine people were confirmed dead from using the fake Armillarisni A injection made by the Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., said officials with the Third Hospital affiliated to Sun Yat-sen University in South China's Guangdong Province.

The fake drug causes pain at alimentary canal and stomach and brings damage to kidney, nervous system and liver.

Among the victims, five had been confirmed dead from using the fake drug by May 16.

The hospital is the only one in Guangdong Province that purchased the drug. It has identified 64 people who used the fake drug.

Liao Xinbo, vice-director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health, said nine out of 18 people who used the fake drug before they died were believed to be killed by the drug.

The other nine may have died from diseases and other reasons, Liao said.

Five patients who fell ill over the fake drug are recovering in the hospital, said Cai Daozhang, vice president of the hospital.

According to a briefing by the State Food and Drug Administration last week, the pharmaceutical company purchased one ton of "propylene glycol" from a drug dealer named Wang Guiping in September 2005 as auxiliary material for producing Armillarisni A injection.

The "propylene glycol" delivered by Wang is actually diglycol, an industrial material which causes acute kidney failure if taken by humans. The company's quality inspectors failed to discover the problem.

Using diglycol, the company produced the injection, mainly for treating acute or chronic cholecystitis and chronic and atrophic gastritis.

Drug authorities in South China's Guangdong Province reported on May 3 that patients using the injection had developed acute kidney failure symptoms.

All of medicines produced by the company have been banned from marketing or using and sealed up for investigation.

China has launched a comprehensive check of pharmaceutical plants nationwide after the fake drug caused deaths.