Arrests, Investigations Over Vaccine Scandal in China

Changsheng is found to have forged records for a rabies vaccine and is accused of distributing thousands of substandard DPT immunizations to be used in children.

kerry grens
| 1 min read

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Vaccine maker Changsheng fudged documentation on the quality of materials used in its rabies vaccine and violated the law, a Chinese government investigation has found. The conclusion comes as 15 people, including the chair of the company, are arrested on “suspicion of criminal offences,” Al Jazeera reports.

“The company used expired materials to produce some rabies vaccine and falsified the production date,” according to a government investigation cited by Reuters. “To cover up violations, the company systematically fabricated production and testing records.”

The fallout from the falsified records on the rabies vaccines comes amid news about another serious lapse by Changsheng in which it allegedly sold more than 250,000 doses of an ineffective diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccine.

Problems emerged with Changsheng’s products last year, when China’s regulatory authority found the DPT vaccine to be subpar. Then this summer, Changsheng voluntarily recalled its rabies vaccine after admitting to falsifying ...

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Meet the Author

  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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