China is regularly hit by scandals involving sub-par or toxic food, drugs and
other products (AFP Photo)
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Beijing (AFP) - China's Communist Party has sacked a senior regional official over a vaccine scandal that inflamed public fears over the safety of domestically produced drugs, state media reported Thursday.
The
government has been struggling to shore up public confidence in the
pharmaceutical sector following the revelation last month that a major Chinese
manufacturer of rabies vaccines was found to have fabricated records and was
ordered to cease production.
The
government has said the suspect rabies vaccines did not enter the market but
the case provoked unusually strong outrage online from consumers fed up with
recurring product-safety scandals, particularly in the drug sector.
The CEO of
the company in question, Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology in the northeast
province of Jilin, has been arrested along with 14 other people in connection
with the scandal.
On
Thursday, Jilin's deputy governor Jin Yuhui became the first political
casualty, the official Xinhua news agency announced.
He was in
charge of monitoring the safety of food and pharmaceuticals.
The
decision to sack him was made at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party's
elite seven-member standing committee, led by President Xi Jinping.
"Those
who break the law and jeopardise public safety, notably in the matter of
vaccines and medicines, should be severely punished," Xinhua reported,
citing the meeting's conclusions.
"It ia
necessary to encourage officials to work well and carry out their
responsibilities in a serious manner," dealing firmly with any failings,
the Chinese leaders added.
Six other
provincial officials were also fired on Thursday following separate meetings by
party leaders, Xinhua reported.
The
officials had been responsible for food and drug safety in Jilin and its
capital Changchun.
China is
regularly hit by scandals involving sub-par or toxic food, drugs and other
products, despite repeated promises by the government to address the problem.
Since the
latest case came to light, the authorities have announced a nationwide
inspection of laboratories producing vaccines, but many Chinese parents say
they no longer have confidence in the medicines administered to their children.
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