China's State Food and Drug Administration disclosed at a recent press conference that the Dalian Jingang Andi Bio-products Company was involved in producing an unapproved drug by using nucleic acid in rabies vaccine for human use and it has ordered the company to recall all of the batches of rabies vaccines concerned.
Yan Jiangying, a representative of SFDA, stated that 11 batches of rabies vaccine for human use made by DJABC in 2008 had been identified with nucleic acid and the agency has asked the company to recall all those batches of rabies vaccine it produced in 2008.
The government investigation shows that DJABC produced totally 97 rabies vaccines for human use in 2008, of which 83 batches have been sold, involving nearly three million doses. Among the 83 batches of sold vaccines sold, 11 batches, totally 360,020 doses, were found to contain the illegal additive nucleic acid. It said that as at 16:00 on February 9, 323,200 doses had been called back.
It is said that nucleic acid acts to enhance the effectiveness of anti-viral drugs. But China hasn't approved it yet for use in rabies vaccine.
