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The Chinese government on Sunday evening called for sanctions against a pharmaceutical industry while the country is shaken by a double scandal of falsified or defective vaccines.
"The firm has crossed the red line of ethics", Chinese premier Li Kegiang slammed Sunday night in a statement. Changsheng Biotechology, the country's second-largest pharmaceutical company, falsified data in order to market a series of rabies vaccines. The scandal erupted last week, when drug and food regulators discovered a number of anomalies during an inspection, and ordered the suspension of production of the product.
This rabies vaccine is administered to babies as early as three months of age. He does not seem to have had any casualties so far, but the health authorities have ordered Changsheng to stop production and recall the product. This is not the first time that Changsheng is facing quality problems. Last year, he sold 252,600 diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus vaccines that failed to meet health standards, the authorities in Jilin Province said Friday.
"It does not matter which companies or the most involved, they will be subject to harsh penalties and we will show zero tolerance, "promises the Prime Minister who also announces the creation of a government commission of inquiry to shed light on the practices of the whole of the sector. The government's announcement comes as the news provokes an uproar on social networks, with many worried parents blaming the health authorities for being lax about uncertain standards. It was Monday one of the most discussed topics on the social network Sina Weibo.
Recurring scandals
The anger of the population is all the stronger because it comes up against the uncertainty of knowing whether or not they have been vaccinated with offending products. Contradictory information is circulating: the CFDA has announced that the doses of rabies vaccines have not left the company while state media have claimed the opposite. In an editorial published Monday, the newspaper Global Time wonders about the presence on the market of products despite past scandals: "People do not understand why the country has not prevented the production of "a vaccine of inferior quality", observes the newspaper, pointing to "lax controls and sanctions too light". Beijing has tried this weekend to expand the scandal on the web, including removing articles and posts on WeChat messaging.
This is not the first time such a scandal has broken out: similar cases regularly fuel public mistrust of Chinese vaccines. In 2013, seven infants died after receiving a hepatitis B vaccine. Three years ago, the country was shaken by a huge scandal over the circulation of outdated vaccines that led to many diseases.
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