Politics
20:49, 16-Aug-2018
Officials held accountable for substandard vaccines
Updated
20:20, 19-Aug-2018
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Decisions were made at the State Council’s executive meeting on Aug 16 to severely punish guilty producers and officials accountable in the case of substandard vaccine producer Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd.
The decisions were made after the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on the same day to hear reports on the investigations into the case.
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The CPC meeting was presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. He stressed that those involved in the case should be held accountable and punished severely according to the law.
The vaccine producer only cared about his own profits and defied the law in various ways, the meeting heard. The company was deemed to have fabricated fake production inspection records and seriously violated the national drug standard as well as quality control regulations.
At the same time, local government and regulatory authorities failed to carry out their responsibilities and some staff members clearly neglected their duties.
The meeting proposed three main policy changes:
• Improvement of the law and regulations. Responsibilities should be clearly set out so that enterprises are aware of their duties. Meanwhile, on-site inspections during the production process should be strengthened; a quality and safety system that can trace back to individuals should be established and a product risk reporting system implemented.
• Enhancement of supervision. For vaccine drugs that require strong expertise and carry high risk, it is necessary to clarify the regulatory individuals. On the basis of local territorial management, independent agencies should be sent out to do separate inspections. It's also urgent to have professional teams to monitor vaccine products.
• Harshness of punishment. For those producing companies which are ignorant of the rules and laws and dare to challenge the bottom line of morality and conscience, harsh punishment – lifelong bans from the industry, for example – should be imposed.
Punishment for officials responsible
The State Council's executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang demanded that those who engaged in lawbreaking and criminal activities be severely penalized and those responsible be held accountable.
At the CPC meeting, participants agreed to remove Jin Yuhui from his post as vice governor of Jilin Province, who was put in charge of supervisory work over food and drug administration in Jilin Province since April 2017, and asked Li Jinxiu to resign from his post as vice chairman of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Li was vice governor responsible for supervisory work over food and drug administration in Jilin from December 2015 to April 2017.
The meeting asked Liu Changlong to resign from the post of mayor of Changchun, and Bi Jingquan to resign from the post of the Leading Party Members Group Secretary of the State Administration for Market Regulation and as deputy head of the administration.
Bi served as the former head of the now defunct China Food and Drug Administration from February 2015 to March 2018.
It urged Jiang Zhiying, a standing committee member of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee and secretary of the CPC Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture Committee in Jilin, and Jiao Hong, head of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), to make profound self-examinations.
A total of 35 non-centrally-administered officials will also be held accountable.
The recent scandal involved vaccines for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus.
The latest investigation shows that two batches of the vaccines produced by Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Limited failed to meet legally required standards.
Health authorities say they will continue to revaccinate children who were given the substandard vaccines free of charge.
(With input from Xinhua)