BEIJING, May 17 -- Two pharmaceutical companies were slapped with 30 million yuan ($4.3 million) in fines for producing substandard rabies vaccines, months after a vaccine scandal was uncovered.
The State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice Saturday saying Ealong Biotech Company in Jiangsu Province was fined about 25 million yuan ($3.6 million) and the Bioforwell Company in Hebei was fined 5 million yuan ($732,353) for producing the shoddy vac-cines, the Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.
A joint investigation by the local public security and medicine supervision departments uncovered the illegal practices at the two companies including the practice of reducing antihelion to lower costs.
The two companies were expected to lose their manufacturing practice certificate, a sort of seal of approval for the manufacturing and testing of active pharmaceutical ingredients, foods, products and medical devices. Nine employees involved in the vaccine production were barred from the pharmaceutical industry for 10 years.
The companies will compensate those who received the substandard vaccines with a second jab, the notice said.
The administration announced in December that more than 210,000 units of rabies vaccines produced between July and October 2008 by the two companies failed to meet national standards.
Yan Jiangyin, the administration spokesman, said earlier that the companies used less effective elements in the vaccine.
The two companies were considered "star enterprises." Bioforwell was applauded by the Hebei government for making a large contribution in taxes and Ealong was one of the eight enterprises authorized to produce A(H1N1) vaccines.
The administration demanded that the companies stop operation and recall the vaccines, but 210,000 units were used at 364 disease control centers in the 27 provinces and cites by July 2009.
Some residents said they found the penalty too lenient.
