69 cases filed in vaccines scandal
Print Edition
POLICE have caught around 130 suspects and filed 69 criminal cases in connection with the ongoing vaccines scandal, it was announced at a press conference by police and health and drug authorities yesterday.
Hua Jingfeng, a deputy bureau chief at the Ministry of Public Security, said some were facing prosecution on charges of illegal operation.
The scandal came to light during a police raid in Jinan, capital of east China’s Shandong Province, last April when it was discovered that a large quantity of improperly stored or expired vaccines had been sold in more than 20 provincial-level regions since 2011.
Hua said the vaccines, including ones against meningitis, rabies and other illnesses, had been sold for 310 million yuan (US47.6 million), rather than the 570 million yuan as previously reported.
Investigators found that most of the vaccines involved had been used, with 20,000 doses seized and sealed by authorities, he said.
Li Guoqing, a supervision chief with the China Food and Drug Administration, said that, so far, police had traced and identified 41 suppliers, 46 buyers, 29 pharmaceutical wholesalers and 16 illegal inoculation institutions.
The case has centered on a mother, surnamed Pang, and her daughter illegally selling vaccines to re-sellers.
Li told the news conference that Pang had previously been given a suspended jail sentence for a similar crime.
“During the period of the suspended sentence, this criminal evaded supervision and control and continued to engage in the criminal act of illegally selling vaccines,” he said, in comments streamed on a government website.
Li admitted there were “certain loopholes in our regulatory work” that allowed the vaccines to circulate on the Chinese market for so long before being found, but he said there were simply not enough people for the job.
“At present our country has 12,000 drug wholesalers, 5,000 production firms and more than 400,000 drug retailers. Regulatory targets are many, but there are few people on the ground, making regulation difficult,” Li said.
“There aren’t even 500 people with the aptitude to inspect drugs. There are dead spaces and blind zones for regulation and inspection.”
The issue of regulation, from food and drugs to online sales, has become increasingly contentious in China as it looks to improve quality and safety.
Premier Li Keqiang has said regulatory bodies, including the health ministry and police, need to work more in tandem, and that “dereliction of duty” would not be tolerated.
The government says it has not found any spike in abnormal reactions to inoculations.
Though the vaccines weren’t stored properly in the warehouse or refrigerated during delivery, they would be unlikely to pose health risks, Li, the administration’s chief supervisor, said.
He was keen to reassure the public that vaccination in China was safe. China is among very few countries in the world that entirely rely on domestic manufactures to solve vaccine supply, he said.
China produces about 1 billion doses of vaccines every year, with 700 million used.
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