BEIJING — China said that it has sacked six senior officials over the defective vaccine case involving Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Limited on August 18.

Five officials at the now defunct China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), including Ding Jianhua, who headed two departments at the CFDA, were removed from their posts, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said in a statement on its website.

The sixth sacked official, Wang Youchun, was deputy dean of the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC). The dean of the NIFDC, Li Bo, was ordered to “make profound self-examinations”, according to the statement.

The defective vaccine case exposed many loopholes as relevant officials were found in dereliction of duty as they did not provide sufficient supervision nor were they strict enough in their inspection, the statement said.

During the country’s cabinet restructuring, the SAMR was formed in April, replacing the CFDA and two other agencies that had overlapping duties to strengthen oversight of food, drugs, and consumer and industrial products.