China Says It Found Ring Said to Sell Improperly Stored Vaccines
By AUSTIN RAMZY

HONG KONG — The police in China say they have uncovered a criminal ring suspected of selling improperly stored vaccines in dozens of provinces.

After the arrest of a former doctor and her daughter in Shandong Province, in eastern China, the police said they were searching for 300 suspects across the country.

More than 20 people have been detained since last year or are on bail in connection with the case, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.

The former doctor in Shandong was convicted of illegally selling vaccines in 2009 and was given a suspended three-year prison sentence, according to The Paper, an online news organization that first reported on the case. But rather than halt her activities after her conviction, the suspect, who has been identified by only her surname, Pang, apparently enlisted her daughter to expand the vaccine sales, officials said.

The Shandong authorities found indications that Ms. Pang was continuing to sell vaccines illegally in 2014, and they raided a storage site last year, The Paper reported. It is unclear why the case has become public only now.

The vaccine network spread across 24 provinces, regions and major cities including Beijing, according to the Shandong Food and Drug Administration.

The vaccines in question had been stored without appropriate temperature control to prevent spoilage. More than a dozen suspect products have been identified, including vaccines for rabies, polio, meningitis, hepatitis B and mumps, the Shandong authorities said. The vaccines were worth an estimated 570 million renminbi, or $88 million, Xinhua reported. It gave no specifics about any harm the vaccines may have done.

The scandal follows other cases that have shaken confidence in the authorities’ ability to protect public health. In 2007, a former director of the State Food and Drug Administration was executed for taking bribes from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for approving drugs. A year later, the widespread use of the chemical melamine was discovered in infant formula; about 300,000 children were sickened, and at least six died.

山東爆非法疫苗 查封清單公布

山東省食品藥品監督管理局21日公布了濟南非法銷售疫苗案查封疫苗品種清單，其中包括12種第二類疫苗，2種免疫球蛋白、1種治療性生物製品。

中新社報導，從查封清單中發現，共有12種第二類疫苗（由公民自費並且自願受種的其他疫苗），分別為凍乾人用狂犬病疫苗（Vero細胞）、脊髓灰質炎滅活疫苗、b型流感嗜血桿菌結合疫苗、乙型腦炎減毒活疫苗、腮腺炎減毒活疫苗、凍干乙型腦炎滅活疫苗（Vero細胞）、重組乙型肝炎疫苗（CHO細胞、漢遜酵母）、A群C群腦膜炎球菌結合疫苗、ACYW135群腦膜炎球菌多糖疫苗、水痘減毒活疫苗、口服輪狀病毒活疫苗、甲型肝炎滅活疫苗（人二倍體細胞）。除疫苗外清單中還包括狂犬病人免疫球蛋白、乙型肝炎人免疫球蛋白，2種免疫球蛋白，以及1種治療性生物製品。

山東省食品藥品監督管理局對外公佈稱，目前山東已成立由食品藥品監管、公安、衛生計生等相關部門組成的案件處置工作小組，協作聯動，追查所有案件線索，嚴懲重處違法違規行為，排查所有疫苗經營、使用單位的庫存疫苗，一旦發現來源不明疫苗，立即封存，對不按要求辦理的，一律嚴肅處理，在案件查辦中，發現涉案產品流向涉及其他省（區、市），將及時通報相關地區組織協查。

山東警方破獲的龐某非法經營疫苗案，案件金額達到5.7億元人民幣。北京、上海、山西、廣東、江蘇、湖南、雲南、浙江、海南、四川、安徽、河南等省市的有關部門正在配合對非法疫苗進行核查，目前尚未發現問題疫苗。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/asia/china-vaccine-sales.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20160322/c22chinavaccine/zh-hant/

2016-03-22．聯合報．B4．兩岸動態．大陸新聞中心