A Chinese company that sold a batch of diethylene glycol -- a chemical cousin of antifreeze -- that ended up in Panamanian medicines that killed at least 51 people had no license to sell pharmaceuticals, the Chinese government said yesterday.
Jiang Yu (姜瑜), a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said an investigation into the source of the deadly medicine revealed the Chinese company that originally sold it was only authorized to sell chemicals for industrial use.
She did not give the company's name.
"This morning we contacted the State Food and Drug Administration, which investigated the matter a half year ago," Jiang said. "According to their investigation, the company is not an enterprise for medicine production but is licensed to make chemical-grade materials."
"The production of medicine and supplementary materials is strictly regulated in China," she said.
The brief comments were the first public acknowledgment that Beijing had investigated claims that a Chinese manufacturer was to blame for the deaths.
However, Jiang did not make clear how Chinese-made industrial chemicals ended up in medicine or say whether anyone in China was criminally liable for the deaths.
The New York Times said in an investigative report published on Sunday that China's Taixing Glycerine Factory (泰興甘油廠) made the diethylene glycol and fraudulently passed it off as 99.5 percent pure glycerin to a Spanish company, Rasfer International, which in turn sold it to Panama's Medicom SA.
Medicom then sold it to a Panamanian government lab.
Glycerin, which is often processed from animal fats and occurs naturally in the human body, is a sweet liquid that can give cough syrup and other remedies thickness while preventing them from dissolving in water. It is used in many kinds of medicines worldwide.
Jiang said that China's State Food and Drug Administration launched its investigation at the request of the US Food and Drug Administration.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique