BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co. plans to compensate victims of its contaminated leukemia drug, methotrexate, a senior official with China's drug watchdog said here on Monday.

    Wu Zhen, State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) deputy director, said at a press conference that the Shanghai-based company was planning compensation and the relevant work was underway.

    The official, however, failed to reveal how much each victim would get. He said the administration would soon make public its punishment on the drug company.

    There was no information on how many people were effected.

    "Those responsible for the incident must be punished," Wu said, noting police were investigating the case.

    The SFDA and the Ministry of Health (MOH) suspended production, sale and usage of methotrexate and cytarabin hydrochloride, two drugs made by the company, on Sept. 5.

    It made the decision after the National Center for Adverse DrugReaction Monitoring reported that the drugs had caused adverse reactions, including difficulty in walking and urine retention, insome leukemia patients.

    Several child leukemia victims in three hospitals in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Shanghai developed pain in their legsand some had difficulty walking after being injected with methotrexate drug in early July.

    On Sept. 14, the MOH and the SFDA said in a joint notice that investigations revealed that the incidents happened because several batches of the two drugs had been contaminated by vincristine sulfate, an anti-cancer medicine, during production.

    The Shanghai municipal government said on Sept. 15 that "most" of the suspect drugs had been recalled and the relevant agencies had traced the whereabouts of the rest.

    The local food and drug bureau had also closed down the factories involved to find out how the mistake occurred.