Chinese Parents Panic Over Infant Vaccine Safety
- Parents flock to Hong Kong for childhood immunizations
- Drugmakers’ stocks have lost $22 billion since scandal broke
Photographer: Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images
China’s vaccine scandal is sparking protests and panic among parents, with the revelation two drugmakers sold poor-quality vaccines for infants reviving anxiety over the country’s ability to ensure safety in the world’s second-biggest health-care market.
Demonstrators gathered outside the National Health Commission in Beijing Monday, according to videos posted on Twitter, demanding tougher regulation of vaccine sales in China after Changsheng Bio-Technology Co., a drugmaker listed in Shenzhen, and state-owned vaccine maker Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co. were found by a government probe to have made hundreds of thousands of low-quality vaccines. Changsheng was found to have also falsified production and inspection data.