Four people who smuggled vaccines from Singapore were shown leniency following a new drug management law.

Four people who smuggled vaccines from Singapore received lenient penalties following the implementation of a new drug law.

The four were originally sentenced to four to seven years imprisonment for selling fake drugs.

The vaccines involved were legally registered in Singapore, and, according to a law that took effect on December 1, such drugs are no longer seen as "fake."

On Saturday, Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People's Court cut the four's jail terms on charges of to smuggling.

The court said that between July 2015 and November 2016, Hu Panpan asked Sun Yongping to purchase 11 batches of vaccine from overseas clinics. Another man, Jian Lihe, helped transport the vaccines into China.

The vaccines were sold to the Shanghai American-Sino OB/GYN/Pediatrics Services' Dingxiang outpatient department, where Guo Qiao, was in charge, and used in the department's daily services.

The amount involved in the smuggling case reached more than 4.25 million yuan (US$600,000) while the amount involved in Guo's illegal trading was close to 10 million yuan.



Hu was sentenced to three years, one month and ten days in jail, while Sun and Jian were both given terms of two years and one month.



Guo will be jailed for two years and the clinic fined 200,000 yuan.



This case drew wide attention as Pfizer withdrew it 7-valent pneumonia conjugate vaccine from the Chinese market in April 2015, leaving a gap of almost two years without any similar vaccines before the 13-valent pneumonia conjugate vaccine entered the market in March 2017.



The long gap forced parents to turn to smuggled vaccines. As the vaccines were all legally purchased overseas, many parents thought that they should not be considered "fake."



After the four were sentenced on January 5 last year, Shanghai High People's Court cancelled the verdict and asked the Intermediate court to have the trial again on November 27 after more investigation, and prosecutors reduced the charge to smuggling.