Chinese authorities announced that they penalized some officials involved in the Changsheng vaccine scandal to teach them a lesson. The disciplinarian action was handed out on Saturday, Feb. 2.
According to Strait Times, the corruption watchdogs disciplined 42 people and out of this number, six mid-senior level officials from the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) were ordered to resign or dismissed from their offices. Former deputy director Wu Zhen was reprimanded along with 29 others who were given unspecified penalties.
More importantly, the Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Limited was slapped with US$1.3 billion in fine last year, for breaking China's law on drug management and production supervision. The company manufactured an ineffective vaccine for rabies in 2017 and although they acknowledged that the products may not be effective, it insisted that these are not a threat because they will not cause any safety issues.
The wrongdoing was discovered after an employee tip-off the authorities and the Chinese drug regulator immediately carried out an unannounced check at the facilities owned by Changsheng. The inspectors tested samplings of the vaccines and found that some DPT fell short of achieving the potency standard requirements set by China's drug administration office, Reuters reported.
It was added that the ineffective medicine was sold in the eastern province of Shandong so hospitals and health centers around China were advised to stop giving out the affected vaccines. Moreover, the Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology was also found to have fabricated records in order to pass the vaccines as potent and saleable.
Meanwhile, just a few months after the Changsheng vaccine scandal made headlines, another issue related to the vaccine has emerged. This time, the Chinese police launched a probe to apprehend those who are responsible or the distribution and administration of expired polio vaccines to children.
At least 145 children were confirmed to have taken the expired polio vaccines that they obtained from a health center in Jinhu country in Jiangsu province. The oral medicine was delivered to the clinic in May 2017 and the date of expiration was Dec. 11, 2018. However, despite knowing the date, the clinic still used 21 vials on Jan. 7 for the immunization of some children.
Angry parents protested at the county government office and with the citizen's visible loss of confidence in health administration, China vowed to investigate further and punish those who will be proven neglectful of their duties. In addition,
China's drug regulators proposed new vaccine-specific law in order to avoid similar incidents in the future. The new law is currently being reviewed and once approved, stricter rules and tougher punishment for violators are to be expected.
