Chinese leaders order an investigation into the vaccine scandal

BEIJING – Chinese leaders are struggling to boost public confidence and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry after a fake vaccinator was found rigging records, the latest security scandals that outraged Chinese parents.

Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement Sunday that Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd., which is accused of fabricating production and inspection documents, "violated a moral result." President Xi Jinping echoed these remarks, while Changchun Police, a city in northeastern China, announced that the company's general manager and four other leaders had been forced to commit wrongdoing.

Li's remarks were meant to appease Chinese parents who complain about worrying about fake food, milk and medicine in a society. "Defective vaccines are like child abuse and trafficking – they touch the most sensitive and vulnerable part of the public's heart," wrote Xi Po, a columnist for The Paper, a popular online media supported by the Shanghai government. "But unlike cases of child abuse, vaccine scandals involve layers and layers of regulators and broken interest groups."

No case of injury has been reported, but disclosure has been relaunched around social media. raw nerve for Chinese parents. Two years ago, a similar scandal erupted after the police broke a criminal network that had sold millions of defective baby vaccines – but did not disclose its case for months.

Regulators announced last week that Changchun Changsheng manufacturer, was ordered to stop production and recall his rabies vaccine. A few days later, provincial authorities in northeastern China announced that batches of DTP vaccine, or vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and tetanus, were defective. More than 250,000 doses of DTP vaccine have been sold, reported the Chinese public broadcaster

Public anger intensified rapidly over the weekend following anonymous author's report revealing that the regulators had already encountered production problems in Changchun Changsheng. do not publish their results or announce a recall until July. The post was widely shared and was censored on Sunday as Chinese leaders launched a public relations campaign.

In his statement, Li acknowledged the government's lapse and promised to punish offenders and regulators found in "breach of duty". The China Daily urged the government to deal with the matter in a "transparent" way, while the Communist Party's Global Times called on the authorities to "follow the demands of citizens' security and better control and regulate "[19659014] Government censors have used a relatively light touch, allowing online news outlets like The Paper and Caixin to pursue the story while giving Internet users a space to express their frustration. Monday afternoon, the hashtag "Changchun Changsheng made false vaccines" had collected more than 100 million views on Weibo.

The company's phone lines were busy for several hours Monday and the executives could not be contacted. Yuze, another author of The Paper, has squarely asked if national policies to support drug companies "open the door" to corruption.

"The main problem is insufficient regulation, missing regulations, impotent regulation". "It's easy to see how (lax regulation of the vaccine industry) are grape leaves and excuses for the transaction of money and power."

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Joe McDonald contributed to this report.

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