The safety of food and drugs appears to be a real problem from Chinese authorities. No further than last year, blood thinner Heparin coming from China made hundreds of victims after being contaminated.

 

Then, at least six babies died and nearly 300,000 were sickened by infant formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine that can cause kidney failure. Two men were sentenced to death in that case last month.

 

On Thursday, Chinese police detained two people believed to be involved in distributing a counterfeit diabetes drug linked to two deaths in the far western Xinjiang region last month. The drug also sent nine other people to the hospital.

 

Chinese authorities found 10,000 bottles of the medicine in Xinjiang. Another 4,800 bottles were discovered in western China’s Qinghai province and 215 bottles in southwestern Sichuan province.

 

The drug, sold under the brand “Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang,” was found to contain six times the normal dose of glibenclamide, the ingredient used to help lower blood sugar.

 

According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the two men were detained in Liaoning province in northeastern China. One pf them is the brother of the main suspect in the case, Li Dong, a native of Liaoning.

 

No cases of illness have been confirmed other than those in Xinjiang region.