Five people are facing trial in Ghuanzhou City in southern China, for their involvement in the sale of fake medicine that killed 13 patients at a Ghuangzhou hospital in 2006. The trial is the latest scandal concerning the corruption-plagued Chinese drug industry.

The five were all working for a pharmaceutical company in northwestern China and were being pinpointed as those behind the purchase of fake chemicals used in the production of a drug used for treating liver and gallbladder disease.

Niu Zhongren, told the court that in September 2005, he purchased a fake chemical, Diglycol to be used for treating liver and gallbladder disease, from the defendants.

According to reports, the drops were used April 2006 and administered to 15 patients in a hospital in Guangzhou and 13 of them subsequently died due to kidney failure.