CHINA’S State Administration for Market Regulation on Sunday published a draft law on vaccine management on its website to solicit public opinions for half a month.

The 11-chapter draft law stipulates that supervision and management of vaccines’ market access should be tightened.

The draft law requires stricter management on vaccine production, research after sales, distribution and vaccination.

Illegal behaviors, including fabrication of data, will be severely punished, the draft read.

Those who participate in illegal behaviors, shield or connive with violators, hide the fact through fabrication, or impede investigation will receive severe punishment, the draft said.

Last week, a senior official for market regulation said China will establish a system that rewards whistleblowers who expose food or drug safety problems, as a measure to improve supervision and deter violations of the law.

Whistleblowing can play an important supplementary role in monitoring food and drug safety, based on global experience, Zhang Mao, minister of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said at an international forum on food safety cooperation during the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

The draft law came after the country was rocked by a vaccine scandal. China’s National Medical Products Administration, which is part of the State Administration for Market Regulation, announced during an inspection in July that it found Changchun Changsheng Bio-tech Co., a major vaccine producer in Changchun, Jilin Province, to have fabricated production records and that it committed other serious violations of the law in producing a rabies vaccine.

Changsheng’s illegal activities included using expired vaccine raw materials, altering production dates, forging permits and destroying evidence during inspections, the statement said.

The company was ordered to suspend production, and senior executives face serious criminal penalties. The company was ordered to pay fines of 9.1 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) for violations involving the fabrication of production records and using expired materials in its rabies vaccine.

(SD-Xinhua)