Associated Free Press
05/16/2010
Chinese authorities have fined two drug companies, including one authorised to make swine flu vaccines, for producing substandard rabies shots, state media said Monday.
Ealong Biotech Company was fined 25 million yuan (3.6 million dollars) and Bioforwell Company was told to pay five million yuan for producing 210,000 units of a rabies vaccine in 2008, the Global Times newspaper reported.
The companies had reduced the level of a key ingredient to cut costs, rendering the jabs ineffective, it quoted the State Food and Drug Administration as saying.
Ealong Biotech, based in eastern Jiangsu province, is one of a handful of companies authorised to produce the nation’s vaccines for swine flu, or the A(H1N1) virus.