Drug factory closed after 100 deaths

KARACHI (AP):

Pakistani authorities have closed a drug factory alleged to have made faulty heart medicine that killed more than 100 patients.

Government investigator Akbar Baluch said yesterday that tests from a laboratory in London showed that tablets produced in the facility contained massive doses of anti-malarial medicine that poisoned heart patients.

He says the factory in Karachi made more than nine million IsoTab tablets.

Some were handed out to patients in the eastern Punjab province, where all the deaths occurred.

Health officials have said more than 100 deaths in Punjab have been linked to consumption of the drug in the last few weeks.