Two jailed for illegally selling vaccines

Two people have been sentenced to jail after being convicted of illegal trading vaccines, Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

The duo illegally bought and sold vaccines, including for Haemophilus influenza Type B and Japanese encephalitis, with total sales of roughly 2 million yuan ($290,200), according to the Zhanggong District People’s Court in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province.

The two, surnamed Liu and Liao, were given prison terms of seven and three years and fined 100,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan respectively. They didn’t appeal.

Liu was a former staff worker at a county-level center for disease control and prevention in the province. The defendant started selling vaccines in 2013 without government authorization. The court did not state where Liu sourced the vaccines.

Liao was later summoned by Liu to help with the trade, the court said. The two were caught by police between March and May last year.

Police are still hunting for others implicated in the case.

The vaccines were sold in eight cities in Jiangxi, including Ji’an, Shangrao, Jiujiang, Yingtan, Pingxiang and Ganzhou, the court said. In Ganzhou alone, 14 counties were found with the vaccines, mostly at township level health institutions.

According to the drug management law and regulation in China, sales of vaccines have to be licensed and strictly controlled by the authority because of safety concerns.

Public health experts said the illegal vaccine trade poses a huge public health risk.