Safety Concerns Halt Rabies Vaccine Production in Shenzhen

By Jessica Ho, July 18, 2018

Changsheng Life Sciences Shenzhen and its Jilin province off-shoot, Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology, have been told by China’s drug watchdog to stop production of its rabies vaccines, reports South China Morning Post.

An inspection by the watchdog uncovered that the country’s second-largest producer of rabies vaccines had been forging data and violating protocol in the production of Vero-cell rabies vaccines in Changchun.

According to the World Health Organization, rabies is endemic, with 96 percent of deaths via the disease occurring in Asia and Africa. The fatal virus is spread to people from the saliva of rabid animals into wounds or bites. After infection, the virus can be treated through shots.

In a statement on July 15, the Chinese Drug State Administration said it ordered the Changchun branch to revoke an important production license.

The administration confirmed that no vaccine products involved in the recent inspection were on sale, and all vaccines involved have been removed.

Changsheng Life Sciences, Changchun and its Shenzhen-listed parent company made a statement on July 16 that the company had voluntarily recalled and sealed all the rabies vaccines that had been already sent to disease control centers and hospitals.

This is not the first scandal for the company – less than a year ago the company’s DPT vaccine, which prevents diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, was discovered to be not up to standard. The company had sold hundreds of thousands of vaccines from the substandard batch to disease and control prevention centers in Shandong province.

Despite the recent recall, the company defended the quality of its previous rabies vaccines, saying, “no adverse effects related to the quality of the vaccine have been found from years of adverse effects monitoring.”

[Cover image via Pexels]