PANAMA CITY (AP) -- Panamanian authorities have filed charges against the administrator of a Spanish company that allegedly sold a deadly chemical used in medicine that has killed at least 94 people in Panama. Prosecutor Dimas Guevara said Friday that Panama will ask for the extradition of Rasfer Internacional's administrator, who is also the company's legal representative. He said the executive is a Spanish citizen but would not identify her by name. Officials at Rasfer Internacional could not be reached. Investigations revealed that diethylene glycol, a chemical commonly found in antifreeze and brake fluid, was used in cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment made in a Panama government laboratory. The chemical was made by a Chinese company that fraudulently passed it off as 99.5 percent pure glycerin, a sweetener and thickening agent commonly used in drugs, to Rasfer, which then sold it to a company in Panama. (more)
"What should have arrived in Panama was pure glycerin but what came instead was industrial glycerin," Guevara said.
At least 94 people have died from taking medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol since July 2006 and hundreds of other deaths are under investigation to see if they were related.
Three executives with Medicom, a Panamanian company that bought the tainted chemical from Rasfer and then sold it to a government laboratory, are being held in prison, charged with crimes against public health in the deaths.
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