The mysterious rise and fall of China’s scandal-hit ‘vaccine queen’
Changsheng Bio-tech chairwoman Gao Junfang is behind bars. But just how did a girl from rural China become a super-rich businesswoman, and what role did her former boss play in her stellar rise?
On a busy street in Changchun, a city in northeast China that was once the capital of Japan’s puppet state Manchukuo, two tired-looking security guards stand at the entrance to a vast but apparently deserted commercial complex. A broken sign reads “Changchun Institute of Biological Products”.
Across the street, in a residential block for retirees from the institute, several people remain in shock and disbelief at how Gao Junfang, a former colleague who rose to become China’s “Vaccine Queen”, became embroiled in one of the biggest health care scandals to hit the country in years.
As chairwoman and one of the biggest shareholders of Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology – an offshoot of the institute – Gao was one of the wealthiest women in China.
But after hundreds of thousands of the company’s three-in-one DPT vaccines for diphtheria, polio and typhoid were found to be ineffective, and production and inspection records for its rabies vaccine were found to have been fabricated, she is now facing ruin.
Since July 23, 18 people, including Gao, her fellow Changsheng executives, and others associated with the company, have been arrested.
While the next chapter of Gao’s life will be decided by China’s judicial system, her rise to super-rich business owner – Forbes China in 2016 put her fortune at US$1 billion – is a matter for rumour and speculation.