Results of investigation into six deaths linked to the injection of human immunoglobulin in the eastern province of Jiangxi is still pending, a spokeswoman with China's drug safety watchdog said on Tuesday.

Six people died from May 22 to 28 after being injected with the drug at the No. 2 Hospital affiliated with Nanchang University, before the hospital made a connection between the drug and the deaths. No details of the dead people were available.

Earlier reports said no deaths were reported in connection to the drug in all other provinces in China besides Jiangxi. The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has already recalled all the unused 6,247 bottles of the problematic antibody.

The lab research started from the end of May has found "abnormalities" with the immune drug produced by Jiangxi Boya Pharmaceutical Company, Yan Jiangying from the SFDA told a press conference.

According to Yan, lab tests have found abnormalities only in the human immunoglobulin in batch number 20070514, but the reason behind the problematic batch is to date still unknown to the experts.

Yan, however, gave no further details as to the abnormalities, only saying that the problematic drug has "direct links to the death of the patients".

The investigation is still continuing, and Yan pledged once again that the SFDA is going to publicize the results immediately after all tests are completed.

According to China's Drug Management Law, producers of substandard drugs would have their production licenses revoked, illegal company funds seized, face fines and criminal charges.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2008)