It makes pharmaceutical ingredients in an old converted steel plant.
Ms. Sun said the company sold raw pharmaceutical ingredients in Europe and America and more advanced pharmaceutical ingredients in India, among other places.
Chinese officials have known for years that uncertified chemical companies are producing active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Still, Wuxi Hexia showed up in Milan in 2007 selling a line of pharmaceutical ingredients.
Based in Düsseldorf, Germany, Pharma Waldhof distributes biologically derived pharmaceutical ingredients used by drug manufacturers.
"If tomorrow China stopped supplying pharmaceutical ingredients, the worldwide pharmaceutical industry would collapse," he said.
Pharmaceutical ingredients can pass through three or four trading companies, none of which check their quality.
Even so, Watson Chemical advertises that it makes active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Other affected goods include toys, pharmaceutical ingredients, tyres, fabrics, leather and farm machinery.
The cases further illustrate what happens when nations fail to police the global pipeline of pharmaceutical ingredients.
Like many chemical companies in China that make pharmaceutical ingredients for export, S.P.L. fell into a regulatory void.
