This summer, medicines from China have led to two global recalls, a a huge setback for a country that has been trying to restore consumer confidence in the safety of Chinese food and medicines after a deadly episode of infant formula adulteration a decade ago.
The recalls involve widely used blood pressure medicines, and vaccines.
On Wednesday, authorities launched a recall (link in Chinese) of some products sold overseas by Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology, China's second-largest largest producer of rabies vaccines, but didn't specify which countries were on the list. Authorities have found that the company mixed some batches of its rabies vaccines with expired products, and had made up production dates and batch numbers since April 2014 (link in Chinese), according to an investigation team set up by the central government. No deaths or adverse effects have been reported in connection with the vaccines.
The overseas recall marks the widening of a vaccine scandal that has been roiling China since early July, coincidentally coming to light around the anniversary of the infant milk tragedy of 2008. Changchun Changsheng was found to have produced some 3.5 million shots of rabies vaccines that failed to meet the country's safety standard, and had made about 250,000 defective vaccines used to combat diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT), commonly given to young children.
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