The Chinese government said Tuesday that more than 200 children have become sick and one has died after being injected with an unauthorized vaccine against hepatitis A. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Zhejiang Pukang Biotechnology, based in Zhejiang province, manufactured most of the vaccines. The report is an example of the growing fake drug industry, worth $35 billion annually. A study published by Oxford University researchers earlier this year estimated that 15 percent of all drugs sold worldwide are counterfeit. China is a major player in fake drug production and in its experience of the human cost of the lucrative market. Already this June, a fake chicken pox vaccine made 151 students sick and killed one child in Yunnan Province. In 2001, counterfeit medicines caused 192,000 Chinese deaths, according to official government news agencies.
