Wuhan vaccine factory restarts

Tests confirm manufacturing in order

BEIJING: Vaccines produced by one of the drug companies embroiled in the recent vaccine scandal might be available as a supplement for children who had previously taken substandard doses, since production has resumed, authorities said.

The Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which was reported to have produced a batch of 400,520 doses of substandard diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccines (DTaP) for infants, has passed an inspection and resumed production, according to the State Drug Administration.

Last year, the company, based in Wuhan, Hubei province, was linked to substandard DTaP vaccines along with Changchun Changsheng Bio-tech Co. in Jilin province.

The 252,600 doses of vaccine produced by Changchun Changsheng Bio-tech Co. were all sold in Shandong province, with 215,184 children being vaccinated, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Shandong.

Another 400,520 doses of substandard vaccine were produced by the Wuhan institute. Of those, 210,000 were sold to Hebei province and 190,520 went to Chongqing.

“We sent teams to investigate the two manufacturers and inspected their production

We sent teams to investigate the two manufacturers and inspected their procedures. State Drug Administration

procedures and vaccine quality.

“All vaccines involved in recent scandals have been recalled and are currently not available in the market,” an official from the State Drug Administration said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency and China Media Group on Wednesday.

According to the administration, Changchun Changsheng Bio-tech Co stopped DTaP vaccine production last year.

Wuhan Institute of Biological Products has resumed production after having 30 batches of DTaP vaccines successfully pass testing by the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control. — China Daily/Asia News Network