Pledge to close vaccine loopholes
Print Edition
A SENIOR Chinese drug regulator yesterday promised to close loopholes in the country’s vaccine distribution system.
Wu Zhen, deputy head of the China Food and Drug Administration, was commenting on the recent arrests of a mother and daughter suspected of illegally selling improperly stored or transported vaccines worth more than 570 million yuan (US$88 million) in about 20 provincial-level regions since 2011.
The scandal revealed problems in vaccine distribution, said Wu, who was attending the Boao Forum for Asia in south China’s Hainan Province.
The administration is working with law enforcement authorities to investigate and ensure the safety of vaccines, he said.
He vowed to identify and fix loopholes, severely punish wrongdoers and publish information timely. Vaccines are generally well-managed in China through rules for distribution and use, he added.
On Monday, the regulator, health authorities and police issued a circular ordering drug and health departments to trace the manufacturers of the vaccines and remove any substandard products from the market as soon as possible.
It also called for efforts to identify and apprehend suspects still at large and a thorough investigation into the supply and sales chain. The following day, it gave local authorities until tomorrow to find out who had bought the vaccines involved.
It said it had already identified nine vaccine wholesalers from six provinces suspected of filing fraudulent reports of buyers’ identities.
Police in east China’s Shandong Province have detained 37 suspects in connection with the scandal and three pharmaceutical companies are being investigated.
One of them, Shandong Zhaoxin Bio-tech Co, has been ordered to halt production and has had its license revoked.
Police in Hunan, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces have also reported detaining suspects.
A dozen people on a list of 300 suspects have been identified as sales staff from 12 pharmaceutical wholesalers, the CFDA said.
Suspects allegedly purchased 25 types of vaccine from more than 100 sales staffers, both licensed and unlicensed, and sold them to illegal agents or even local government-run disease control and prevention centers at high prices, according to police in Shandong.
An investigation is set to conclude with a report to the authority before Saturday.
Yesterday, the food and drug authority in east China’s Anhui Province said it had identified 10 suspects. Two of them, along with two wholesalers, have been placed under police investigation.
Meanwhile, four people have been detained in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, which has 17 suspects on the list, including one who allegedly traded 31 batches of vaccines since late 2014. The legal representitive and sales manager of the Sichuan Hengda Biological Products Co Ltd are under investigation.
Although produced by licensed manufacturers, the quality of the vaccines is questionable as they had not been transported or stored properly.
However, no increase in adverse reactions to vaccinations has been noted so far, Xiong Huang, a spokesman for the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said yesterday.
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