The notorious scandal of Changsheng Biotechnology producing fake vaccine irritated the public. The vaccine incident case exposed issues in companies’ internal controls and failure in the regulatory system. China’s top legislature is considering imposing heavier penalties on the production and sale of fake or substandard vaccines. The new law will enable the regulators to close loopholes and rein in risks in vaccine management.
It is normal to see that almost every Chinese kid vaccinates after birth nowadays. As per school’s requests, F-1 students purchase International Student Health Insurance (aka 留学生 保险) to get required vaccine covered in American insurance (aka 美国保险 疫苗) plan, and visiting scholars buy J-1 insurance in the US (aka 美国j1保险). Some purchase OPT insurance (aka opt 保险) or H-1B medical insurance (aka h1b 医保) after graduation. The vaccine safety incident has become a heated topic prevailing among international students who have purchased or are going to purchase American health insurance (aka 美国健康保险) plans covering some types of vaccine. They strongly advocate the tighter penalties to be effective in China ASAP.
The draft vaccine administration law was submitted for a third review to the bi-monthly legislative session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which opened Tuesday.
The draft stipulates that people whose violations constitute a crime shall bear heavier criminal responsibility in accordance with the law.
Meanwhile, the draft imposes heavier fines on producers and sellers of defective vaccines. Those producing or selling fake vaccines shall face a fine of 15 to 50 times the value of the illicit products, while substandard vaccine makers or sellers face a fine of 10 to 30 times the value.
It also raises the threshold for fines, by stipulating that fake or substandard vaccines worth less than 500,000 yuan (72,908 U.S. dollars) shall be calculated as 500,000 yuan.
