Man Behind China’s First Approved Covid-19 Shot Expelled From National Legislature
International News On Man Behind China’s First Approved Covid-19 Shot – Yang Xiaoming Expelled From National Legislature
A former top official at China’s largest vaccine manufacturer, who oversaw the creation of the country’s first inactivated Covid-19 vaccine, has been removed from the national legislature.
Yang Xiaoming was dismissed from his position as a legislative delegate for alleged “serious violations of discipline and law,” according to an official statement released on Friday by the National People’s Congress (NPC), which used a typical euphemism for corruption.
Yang, 62, is an experienced researcher and past head of China National Biotec Group, a vaccine subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm. He led the team that created Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV vaccine, China’s first coronavirus injection authorized for general use.
The NPC statement, which came after a four-day meeting of its standing committee, indicated Yang is already being examined by the party’s disciplinary agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
The Sinopharm injection and Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac were the most popular Covid-19 vaccines in China, as well as the country’s top exports.
Yang’s removal comes during China’s largest assault on the healthcare system, which is part of a comprehensive anti-corruption campaign initiated by President Xi Jinping in late 2012.
The campaign seeks to root out pervasive corruption in a system riddled with bribes. It targets hospitals, pharma firms, and insurance companies, with scores of hospital executives arrested since last year.
Another former Sinopharm top executive, Zhou Bin, who formerly worked as the company’s deputy general manager, was investigated by the CCDI in January.
Yang, whose research centered on vaccine discovery and development, also worked as Sinopharm’s principal engineer and scientist.
He is also the lead scientist for the vaccination project under China’s national 863 program, a state-funded and managed platform for creating breakthrough technologies.
Yang’s team created the Covid-19 vaccine, which was licensed for general use in December 2020. Within a year, it was licensed for use in 112 nations and regions, making it the coronavirus vaccine with the broadest supply range at the time, according to media sources.
In a 2021 interview with official media, Yang described the vaccine as a “miracle” since it moved from development to commercial distribution in less than 330 days.
Yang also disclosed that in March 2020, he was one of the first to get experimental doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and “had about 60 tubes of blood drawn in nine months” to screen for antibodies. Antibodies might be discovered a week after the initial treatment, he stated.
He was also recognized with a national award in September 2020 for his contributions to the battle against the epidemic.
Yang received the Chinese Society of Immunology’s Outstanding Scholar Award in November. This was followed in December by the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Award, which recognizes Chinese scientists and medical professionals.
He has been deprived of his accreditation as an NPC delegate, as well as his membership in the NPC’s Ethnic Affairs Committee, according to a statement released Friday.
A reassessment of some lawmakers’ credentials was on the agenda for last week’s NPC Standing Committee meeting. In addition to Yang, three other deputies were terminated for “serious violations of discipline and law”.
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