Excessive ingredient blamed in drug deaths

An excessive amount of an anti-malaria ingredient in a drug given to Pakistani heart patients caused deaths, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said. Sharif said tests of samples of the drug Alfagril at a London lab showed they had been heavily contaminated with Pyrimethamine, a commonly used anti-malaria drug, The Nation reported. "The laboratory has revealed that anti-malaria ingredient was 50 percent higher than normal in the drugs tested by it, which caused the loss of precious lives in Punjab," Sharif told reporters. More than 120 people died after taking the medication. Sharif said an antidote has been developed and is being used in hospitals. A pharmaceutical company in Karachi produced the drug and its owner has been arrested, Sharif said. "All those who committed criminal negligence will definitely be brought to justice," Sharif said. Because of a manufacturing problem, faulty pills developed brown spots and caused a bone-marrow disease, The Express Tribune has reported.