Vaccine firm chairwoman in detention

China has placed in criminal detention the chairwoman of Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd, a vaccine maker accused of falsifying data, and 14 others involved in the case, police said yesterday.

“The Changchun new district public security bureau has detained 15 people, including the chairwoman and others, who are involved in the Changsheng case,” the bureau said in a statement.  

Meanwhile, the discipline inspection body of the Communist Party of China Jilin provincial committee and the supervisory commission of the provincial government have ordered an investigation into the case and pledged serious punishment to those found responsible.

The two watchdogs are reviewing information and public complaints regarding the company and its key personnel. They also ordered an investigation into possible dereliction of duty among food and drug officials, and vowed stern punishment for those involved. A work team has been established to investigate potential corruption during the company’s restructuring, production, and operation processes.

Xu Jinghe, vice minister of the China Food and Drug Administration, said they discovered that the company had fabricated production records and product inspection records, and arbitrarily changed process parameters and equipment during its production of freeze-dried human rabies vaccines. 

The CFDA revoked the company’s drug GMP certificate. The firm was also found to have sold 252,600 doses of ineffective DPT vaccines.