<p>The number of cardiac patients who died after being administered a bad drug at a state-run hospital in this Pakistani city rose to 28 today even as authorities sealed the factory where the medicines were manufactured.</p>.<p>The Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) provided the drug – cardiovestin – free of cost to scores of patients.<br /><br />About 100 patients who took the drug were admitted to hospitals and half of them were in a serious condition, officials said.<br /><br />Officials said reports had put the initial death toll at 25 and three more persons had died subsequently.</p>.<p>The PIC has stopped giving life-saving medicines to some 8,000 patients registered with it, they said.<br /><br />"The Health Department today raided Mega Pharma for manufacturing the suspected drug and sealed its factory," Health Department spokesman Ikhlaq Ahmed told PTI.<br /><br />The team of doctors investigating the deaths had mentioned a reaction to cardiovestin as a possible reason for the deaths in a preliminary report, Ahmed said.<br /><br />A 15-member panel of senior doctors headed by Allama Iqbal Medical College principal Javed Akram is probing the deaths.<br /><br />Akram said a combination of four other drugs had been linked to the deaths after an initial probe and cardiac patients had been advised not to use these medicines.<br /><br />He said denying some 8,000 poor patients of free medicines would make them more vulnerable.</p>
<p>The number of cardiac patients who died after being administered a bad drug at a state-run hospital in this Pakistani city rose to 28 today even as authorities sealed the factory where the medicines were manufactured.</p>.<p>The Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) provided the drug – cardiovestin – free of cost to scores of patients.<br /><br />About 100 patients who took the drug were admitted to hospitals and half of them were in a serious condition, officials said.<br /><br />Officials said reports had put the initial death toll at 25 and three more persons had died subsequently.</p>.<p>The PIC has stopped giving life-saving medicines to some 8,000 patients registered with it, they said.<br /><br />"The Health Department today raided Mega Pharma for manufacturing the suspected drug and sealed its factory," Health Department spokesman Ikhlaq Ahmed told PTI.<br /><br />The team of doctors investigating the deaths had mentioned a reaction to cardiovestin as a possible reason for the deaths in a preliminary report, Ahmed said.<br /><br />A 15-member panel of senior doctors headed by Allama Iqbal Medical College principal Javed Akram is probing the deaths.<br /><br />Akram said a combination of four other drugs had been linked to the deaths after an initial probe and cardiac patients had been advised not to use these medicines.<br /><br />He said denying some 8,000 poor patients of free medicines would make them more vulnerable.</p>