China's Ministry of Health issued an urgent notice Friday calling for medical institutions nationwide to immediately stop using a diabetes drug branded "TangZhi Ning Jiao Nang" after finding it killed patients.

The death-causing drugs contain an illegal chemical ingredient "glibenclamide" and were illegally using the brand "Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang" originally owned by the Guangxi Pingnan Pharmaceutical Co, the ministry said.

The drug had killed two patients in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The ministry also asked medical institutions to record cases where drugs with the same brand had been used and submit samples to local medicine inspection bodies for further examination.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2009)