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Chinese authorities are investigating reports that a batch of 12,000 units of human blood plasma products sold in the country have been contaminated with HIV during the country's latest health alert to pharmaceutical companies.
National Health Commission of China (NHC) said Wednesday (link in Chinese), he had been informed that a lot of intravenous immunoglobulin manufactured by Shanghai Xinxing Medicine Co. Ltd., funded by the state, had been tested positive for anti- HIV.
The NHC and the Chinese pharmaceutical watchdog, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), both have said Wednesday (link in Chinese) that they told medical institutions all over the country to stop using and seal the affected products, which are derived from human blood and used to treat immune disorders. NHC said it asked institutions to monitor patients who received the treatment.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration m said (link in Chinese), he ordered the company to stop production and conduct an emergency recall of the drugs.
The regulator in Shanghai added that experts from the central medical authorities were inspecting the company's production site in the city and that the incident was currently under investigation.
Shanghai Xinxing did not respond to Caixin's requests for comment. China is currently on a seven-day holiday to mark the Lunar New Year, during which many businesses are closed.
The risk of HIV infection through blood products remains low as the products are generally subject to the process of elimination and inactivation of the virus, industry badysts said in Caixin.
According to screenshots posted on Chinese social media earlier this week, the East China's Jiangxi Province Disease Control Center reported for the first time the alleged NHC contamination.
Officials did not disclose how many patients had been treated with the blood plasma product and, if so, had been infected with HIV after being treated.
The lot pbaded Shanghai government quality tests on October 12, according to the government-run National Institutes for Food and Drug Control.
The manufacturer Shanghai Xinxing is controlled by the Chinese pharmaceutical company China Meheco Group Co. Ltd., which belongs to the Chinese public group General Technology Group.
The survey comes just months after the major scandal of a health product in July when Chinese vaccine maker Changchun Changsheng accused of producing and the sale of nearly 500,000 doses of low quality vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus.
Contact reporter Tang Ziyi ([email protected])
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