A thorough investigation into the alleged illegal reselling of vaccines has been ordered by the China Food and Drug Administration. The probe comes amid a case involving vaccines worth more than 570 million yuan (S$120 million) that are suspected to have been sold in at least 24 provincial areas.

Police in Shandong province have investigated the case in which a mother and her daughter – neither of them authorised to sell vaccines – are allegedly involved in illegal sales.

The case is the largest of its kind in China in terms of the amount of money involved.

On Saturday, the food and drug department in Shandong released a list of 107 suspects who allegedly supplied the pair with the vaccines. The department also made public another 193 suspects who allegedly bought vaccines from the mother and daughter.

The China Food and Drug Administration urged all suspects in the case to turn themselves in and reveal the whereabouts of the vaccines. It also called on local food and drug departments to work with the police during the investigation.

The administration said in a statement, “All those involved in the case must report the variety, amount, batch number and whereabouts of the vaccines to the FDA or police before March 25.”

The Public Security Management Department at the Ministry of Public Security said on its micro blog that police will launch a thorough investigation into the case.

In 2005, a central government regulation on vaccine distribution and vaccination divided the country’s approved vaccines into two categories.

The first category, under which residents are required to be vaccinated and there is no charge, may differ between areas. Under the second category, the vaccines are not free and residents can choose whether they want to be inoculated.

According to Shandong police, the vaccines confiscated in the case include 25 types that fall under the second category. According to the suspects’ account book, they were resold in 24 provincial areas.

Police said even though all vaccines involved in the case are made by licensed producers, their quality is questionable as they were not stored or transported under approved conditions.

The mother, 47, surnamed Pang, is a former doctor from Shandong. She and her daughter were detained by police on April 28 last year. They have been transferred to prosecutors who are preparing charges of illegal trading.

KUALA LUMPUR: The two pieces of debris found in Mozambique have arrived in Australia, where an investigation team will look for possible links to missing flight MH370, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (pic).

Examination of the pieces, to be carried out by an international team of experts led by Malaysia, is expected to begin today.

“The MH370 Safety Investigation Team will carry out the examination and analysis on the two pieces of debris with the assistance of experts from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia (DCA), Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Boeing to verify their origins.

“This is in order to adhere to full transparency and accountability in accordance with international protocols, whereby both pieces of debris will only be examined in Canberra once it is in the presence of these experts,” Liow said in a statement here yesterday.

Liow expressed hoped that the results from the examination could be made available soon.

If the pieces are indeed from Flight MH370, these would be the second and third parts of the Boeing 777 that had been found, two years after its disappearance.

The first piece of debris was recovered from Mozambique.

The second piece, also from Mozambique, had been brought to South Africa by the family who had discovered it.

A Malaysian team, comprising the DCA, MAS and the MH370 Safety Investigation Team, later retrieved the piece from South African authorities.

Last year, a piece of MH370’s flaperon was discovered washed up on the shores of French La Reunion Island.

On March 5, Liow said that a Malaysian team would comb the beaches of Mozambique in the hope of finding more aircraft fragments.

A MAN from Gansu province in China allegedly tried selling a female’s skeleton online for those wanting to conduct a ghost marriage ritual, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The man, identifying himself as Liu, was asking RMB150,000 (S$31,600) for the skeleton.

He said the skeleton belonged to a 23-year-old woman who died from leukaemia three years ago.

When contacted by a reporter from China, Liu claimed that the woman was his relative.

He said the father of the woman needed money for an operation so the family was forced to sell the skeleton.

The reporter then lodged a police report as the sale of skeletons is banned in China.

Some families in China still believe that a ghost marriage ritual must be conducted for those who die single so that they will not feel lonely in the afterlife.