Officials held accountable for substandard vaccine scandal

China has sacked six senior officials at the State Administration for Market Regulation following substandard vaccine scandal at Changchun Changsheng Biotech Co.

In a posting on its website, the administration said that Ding Jianhua, who headed two departments at the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), was among the dismissed officials.

Four other officials -- Dong Runsheng, Sun Jinglin, Ye Guoqing and Guo Xiuxia -- also worked at the CFDA.

The sixth official, Wang Youchun, was fired from his position as deputy dean of the National Institute for Food and Drug Control, a unit under the CFDA.

The dean of the institute, Li Bo, was ordered to reflect on the scandal.

In the meantime, eleven officials in central China’s Hubei Province have been punished for their failure to supervise in a case involving defective vaccines produced in Wuhan, the Hubei Daily reported on Friday.

Five officials, including Ai Lidang, deputy director of Wuhan’s Food and Drug Administration, were removed from their posts.

Deng Xiaochuan, deputy director of the Hubei Food and Drug Administration, was given a warning and a demerit.

Several other officials responsible for drug administration at the provincial level and in Wuhan at the time were also punished.

The results have gained recognition from the public, though anger remains.

“I support the central government’s move to severely punish those involved in the substandard vaccine scandal. They deserve this!,” said WeChat user Hainan Yinan.

“Will they pay for what they have done? Will the victims be compensated? Will a mechanism be established to prevent such incidents from occurring again? These questions should be answered,” said WeChat user Langyake Thomas.

What happened?

Chinese regulators in July accused Changchun Changshen of supplying ineffective DPT (diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus) vaccines to be used on babies as young as three months old and forging data for its rabies vaccines.

It sparked public anger, with many netizens flocking to social media to slam the company and relevant departments.

This prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to issue statements of condemnation and vow to severely punish those involved in the scandal.

“The illegal production of vaccines by Changchun Changsheng is vile and appalling. Relevant departments and local authorities should pay close attention and immediately probe the case to find the truth,” said Xi.

“The investigation should be thorough, the punishment severe, the accountability held seriously, and the case’s progress should be publicized on time to address public concern,” he added.

“The vaccine case has crossed a moral line, and the nation deserves a clear explanation,” Li said.

“The State Council should immediately send a group to uncover the truth as soon as possible, and any wrongdoing will be severely punished regardless of who is involved,” he added.

In response, Changchun Changsheng said: “We feel very remorseful and guilty about what has happened, and we apologize to all those vaccinated, and our investors,” adding, “We will learn a lesson.”

The company’s Chairwoman Gao Junfang and four senior executives have been taken away by police in Changchun for questioning, according to Shanghai-based news website thepaper.cn.

What next?

Substandard vaccine scandal at Changchun Changshen is one of the biggest drug safety problems in China in years. Many netizens called on the government to take immediate and effective measures to preventing such incidents from occurring again.

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) on Friday published an Internet article on its WeChat Official Accounts Platform, providing the communist regime’s plan to guarantee the safety of drugs.

“Relevant departments and local governments should improve the legal system and hold responsible people accountable once substandard drugs are found,” said the piece, adding that “officials should strengthen on-site inspections, establish drug safety tracking system, and implement product risk reporting system.”

The article continued to urge the authorities to “train a professional drug inspection team”.

“Those in violation of drug safety laws should be severely punished and officials in breach of duty held accountable,” it concluded.