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 The company was accused in July of falsifying data for a rabies
vaccine and manufacturing an ineffective vaccine for babies,
sparking widespread consumer anger.
While there were no known reports of people being harmed by the
vaccines, regulators ordered Changsheng to halt their production and
recall the rabies vaccine. Changsheng has apologized and said it is
cooperating in the investigation.
A meeting of the ruling Communist Party's Politburo, overseen by
President Xi Jinping, ordered the sacking of Jin Yuhui as vice
governor of the northeastern province of Jilin, where the company is
based, state media said late on Thursday.
Jin had been in charge of supervisory work over food and drug
safety.
Wu Zhen, a former deputy head of the food and drug regulator, will
be investigated by the party's anti-corruption watchdog, it said in
a separate statement.
"The case is a serious offense, in which the vaccine producer
violated the law and relevant standards and regulations in pursuit
of profits and fabricated false production inspection records,"
state news agency Xinhua said, citing the meeting.
"A number of local government officials and supervisory departments
were found in dereliction of duty. The case resulted in a negative
impact and exposed many loopholes, such as inadequate supervision,
and reflected institutional defects in the production, circulation
and use of vaccines."
In a statement to the stock exchange late on Thursday, Changsheng
said that because it would face huge fines and confiscation of all
illegal income it faced the risk of delisting.
Changsheng Biotechnology did not respond to an emailed request for
comment.
More than 40 government officials, including seven at the provincial
level, have been held accountable for the scandal, some of whom have
been sacked, Xinhua said.
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Guo Hongzhi, a senior official at the Jilin branch of the China Food
and Drug Administration (CFDA), and Bai Xugui, a senior member of
the Jilin branch of the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology, were removed from their posts, Xinhua. Bai oversaw drug
supervision as deputy mayor of Jilin between 2016 and 2018.
Zeng Xiangdong and Yan Haijiang, both deputy directors at the Jilin
branch of the CFDA, were also removed from their posts, according to
Xinhua.
Four Changchun city CFDA officials were also removed, Xinhua said,
among a number of others.
Changsheng is based in Changchun city in Jilin province. It is
China's second-largest producer of rabies and chickenpox vaccines,
the company said in its 2017 annual report.
Xinhua said on Wednesday the company had made nearly 500,000
sub-standard vaccines for children, roughly double an earlier
estimate by authorities.
China is no stranger to food and drug scandals, despite repeated
pledges by the government to get tough and impose harsh punishments.
Sanlu Dairy Group in 2008 was at the center of a tainted milk powder
scandal that affected almost 300,000 Chinese babies and killed six.
It filed for bankruptcy soon after it was exposed and several top
managers received long jail terms.
In 2007, China's former drug safety chief Zheng Xiaoyu was executed
for taking some 6.5 million yuan ($944,000) in bribes to let
medicine companies slip past his regulatory net.
(Reporting by Philip Wen, Ben Blanchard and Beijing Monitoring Desk;
Editing by Darren Schuettler and Michael Perry)
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