Toxic medicine in Panama traced to China is a short article that appeared in my local paper today, so probably has had fairly wide publication.

From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine is a longer and more informative article from the New York times that appeared (in an extracted version)yesterday at MSNBC but appeears to be no longer there. (I'd suggest looking soon at the NYT article, as they tend to remove stuff to a "for fee" archive after a week or so.)

Both articles cite numerous cases in which at least one Chinese counterfeiter substituted diethylene glycol for glycerine, labelling the product as 99.5% pure glycerine. Since glycerine is a "universal ingredient" in a vast range of pharmaceuticals, several hundred deaths have been documented and specifically linked to the counterfeit product. Circumstantial evidence indicates that several thousand - and potentially severeal hundred thousand - "unexplained deaths" are due to this counterfeit product.

[Extracted quotes]

Panama is the most recent victim. Last year, government officials there unwittingly mixed diethylene glycol into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine — with devastating results. Families have reported 365 deaths from the poison, 100 of which have been confirmed so far. ... ... ... ... ...

When at least 88 children died in Haiti a decade ago, F.D.A. investigators traced the poison to the Manchurian city of Dalian, but their attempts to visit the suspected manufacturer were repeatedly blocked by Chinese officials, according to internal State Department records. Permission was granted more than a year later, but by then the plant had moved and its records had been destroyed. ... ... ... ...

The Times said investigators in four countries identified Taixing Glycerine Factory as the maker of the poison. That company's certificate of analysis said the shipment was 99.5 percent pure, the Times reported.

The sale of the syrup was brokered by a unit of a state-owned business in Beijing, the article said. From there, it went to a distributor in Barcelona, Spain, and on to a dealer in Panama.
No one in China has been charged with causing the Panamanian deaths.

An unidentified Chinese drug official told the Times that investigators tested the Taixing Glycerine Factory's product and found it contained no glycerine. But a spokeswoman for the drug agency said the company had not broken any laws.

Wan Qigang, the legal representative for the factory, told the Times last year that the company made only industrial-grade glycerin. But more recently it has been advertising 99.5 percent pure glycerine on the Internet, the Times said. Wan declined to answer further questions."

[End quotes]

Glycerine is no less common in pet medications than in human ones, it that makes a difference to anyone.

John