Health

Covid-19: China seizes 3000 fake vaccines, arrests 80

February 2, 2021
365 Daily

 

Chinese police have detained around 80 people and seized 3,000 fake Covid-19 vaccines, state news agency, Xinhua reported on Monday, February 1, 2021.

The suspects were accused of selling pre-filled saline syringes as coronavirus vaccines at high mark-up prices.

The report said police in Beijing and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong had taken part in the operation and had tracked the places where the counterfeits had been produced and sold, locating an undisclosed number.

The arrests come as China is ramping up its vaccine production capacity. The authorities say 24 million doses have been administered so far, and the goal is to immunise 50 million people before the Lunar New Year holiday later this month.
 
Xinhua’s report said the police would crack down on vaccine-related crimes, including the sale and manufacture of fake vaccines, and reminded the public to get the vaccine through official channels to avoid fakes.
 

Under a new vaccine law that came into force in 2019, those making and selling fake vaccines can be fined between 15 and 50 times the value of the product, while those making or selling substandard products face fines of 10 to 30 times the value.

The law was introduced after a series of safety scandals involving the pharmaceutical industry, including one case where vaccine maker 
Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology was found to have sold more than 250,000 substandard DPT vaccines – designed to protect babies against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus – in Shandong province.

Changchun Changsheng was fined 3.4 million yuan (US$526,000) by a provincial regulator – a small sum for a listed company that reported net profits of 566 million yuan and received 48.3 million yuan in government subsidies in 2017.

The following year the company was found to have falsified production data for its rabies vaccine, this time receiving a much heavier fine of 9.1 billion yuan.

 
The authorities said that more than 80 officials had been fired or demoted over the scandal, and four officials from the food and drug regulator handed over to prosecutors. The company’s chairwoman and 14 employees were also arrested.
 

Vaccination specialists warned at the time that the incident would undermine the public’s already weakened confidence in vaccines.

(SCMP)

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chinese Police has announced the arrest of 80 people and seizure of up to 3,000 fake Covid-19 vaccines.

This was disclosed in a report by Reuters on Tuesday morning. The Xinhua news agency said the arrest is an operation to clean up vaccines related crimes.

The Police say the arrests happened in cities across China including Beijing, Shanghai and the eastern province of Shandong, Xinhua said.

The report disclosed that the suspects have been producing fake vaccines since September 2020 and all fake vaccines have been tracked, the vaccines were manufactured by injecting saline into syringes.

The Police disclosed the suspects planned on exporting the fake vaccines according to multiple sources.

 

 

 

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