China to arrest 125 suspects in USD 88 mn vaccine scandal

China has ordered the arrest of 125 people and put 37 officials under investigation for their suspected involvement in a USD 88 million worth of vaccine sales scandal.
The investigation into the illegal network of vaccine sales, that began three months ago, has so far seen 190 criminal cases, involving 341 suspects, filed by the police nationwide.
Fifteen people have been indicted and two convicted of illegal sale of vaccines, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said in a statement yesterday.
Of the 125 suspects, 25 were from Fujian Province, 19 from Henan, 15 from Heilongjiang and 13 from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The 37 officials, who are suspected of taking bribes, abuse of power or negligence, are from Fujian, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong and Hubei, the SPP said, adding that 10 of them are to be arrested.
Police in east China's Shandong Province said in February that they had arrested a mother and daughter suspected of selling improperly stored or expired vaccines worth more than 570 million yuan (USD 88 million) since 2011.
The vaccines had allegedly been sold in more than 20 provincial-level regions.