http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296949,00.html


China Recalls Tainted Leukemia Drugs




BEIJING — Chinese authorities ordered the recall of tainted leukemia
drugs blamed for leg pains and other problems, state media reported
Sunday, the latest crisis to strike the country's embattled food and
drug industries.

Most of the drugs involved — methotrexate and cytarabin hydrochloride
— have been recovered and authorities have traced the remainder, the
Xinhua News Agency said. The report did not say if any of the drugs
had been exported.

Authorities have banned the sale and distribution of the drugs,
produced by the Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co., it said.

China, a major global supplier, has been facing growing international
pressure to improve the quality of its exports after dangerous toxins
— from lead to an antifreeze ingredient — were found in goods
including toys and toothpaste.

China has been eager to cast itself as a victim, too, of unsafe
imports. Xinhua on Saturday announced that inspectors recently found
residue of the banned stimulant ractopamine in frozen pig kidneys
imported from the United States and frozen pork spareribs from Canada.
The names of the exporting companies were not identified. Ractopamine
is forbidden for use as veterinary medicine in China.

Xinhua said the 18.37 tons of frozen pork kidneys and 24 tons of
frozen pork had been returned to importers exporters, said the General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
(AQSIQ).

Ractopamine, a hormone that promotes the growth of lean meat in pigs
and cattle, is banned by China and most other countries as a health
hazard, although its use in stock animals is permitted in the U.S. and
Canada. China has also recently banned imports of U.S. meat
contaminated with salmonella, additives, and veterinary drugs.

Xinhua said the State Food and Drug Administration and Health Ministry
banned the two leukemia drugs after several child leukemia patients
who were taking them complained of leg pains and difficulty walking.
Xinhua said some patients also complained of urine retention.

It said the Health Ministry and drug administration had traced the
problems with the drugs to their being tainted with vincristine
sulfate, an anticancer drug. Xinhua said factories manufacturing the
drugs had been closed.

China has taken a series of steps to crackdown on tainted drugs and
other unsafe products, in part due to concern over the reputation of
its exports.

In the harshest action so far, the country's former top drug regulator
was executed in July for taking millions of dollars in bribes to
approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic that killed at
least 10 people.