By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-30 06:45

GUANGZHOU: Five employees of Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd were given jail terms ranging from four to seven Tuesday yesterday for producing and selling counterfeit drugs.

Thirteen people at a hospital in Guangzhou died of kidney failure in April 2005 after being given drugs made by the Heilongjiang-based company.

The company's general manager Yin Jiade, deputy general managers Zhu Chuanhua and Guo Xingping, laboratory chief Chen Guifen, and chemical purchaser Niu Zhongren were all charged with "criminal offenses".

"The five workers are the key people responsible for the deaths," Zhang Chunhe, chief judge of the Guangzhou intermediate people's court, said.

Zhu, who was given a seven-year sentence, said the company had bought a GMP (good manufacturing practices) certificate for 100,000 yuan ($14,000), allowing it to produce drugs.

Investigators found that the drug, Armillarisni A, contained a chemical that can cause kidney failure. The drug is mainly used to treat gallstones and inflammation of the stomach lining.

The government shut down the company's plant in 2006 and ordered its products removed from shelves.

A group of 11 patients filed a lawsuit against the hospital last month, saying it had misused the drug.

They asked for a combined 20 million yuan ($2.86 million) in compensation.

Zhang said that trial will open in June.

Meanwhile, the suit against the allegedly fraudulent chemical supplier Wang Guiping, who is also involved in the drugs case, will open soon in Jiangsu province, Zhang said.

Wang, who allegedly forged his business license and drug registration and manufacturing licenses under the name of the Taixing General Chemical Plant in Jiangsu province, sold two tons of diglycol, claiming it was "propylene glycol", to the Heilongjiang-based company between the end of 2004 and September 2005.