Local authorities across China have begun to seize a blood-based drug which is believed to have infected users with hepatitis C.

The Shanghai food and drug administration on Thursday said that it has seized 4,832 bottles of the drug produced by Guangdong Bioyee Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., while authorities in east China's Shandong Province said they seized 461 bottles.

In Beijing 68,558 bottles have been recalled, along with 21,470 bottles in south China's Guangdong Province.

Chinese Ministry of Health on Wednesday issued an urgent statement to ban the use of the drug.

Local health authorities must order all medical institutions to register patients who have used the drug, said the statement.

Those who have used the intravenously administered drug must be given blood tests for hepatitis C nucleic acid and antibodies, and should be put under close observation, the statement added.

The drug has been sold in 12 provinces and cities -- Beijing, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing and Sichuan, according to the ministry.

Guangdong authorities were aware that the company responsible for the China's Hepatitis C scandal had illegally procured blood stocks that were tainted, according to media reports.

The drug is made from donated human blood and used to boost the users' immune systems.

Source: Xinhua