Former Changsheng Bio Chair Gao Junfang Sentenced to Life in Prison

Gao Junfang, the former chairwoman of Changsheng Bio-Technology Co., Ltd., has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a court in China upheld her conviction in the company's long-running vaccine scandal.

Gao was convicted on four charges: producing and selling substandard or counterfeit products, accepting bribes as a non-state employee, misappropriating company funds, and corporate bribery. She was sentenced to life in prison, deprived of political rights for life and ordered to forfeit all of her personal property. A second-instance ruling upheld the original judgment.

Four Convictions Lead to Life Sentence

The case was initially heard by the Changchun Intermediate People's Court, which handed down its first-instance judgment on January 30, 2026.

According to reports on the final ruling, prosecutors had initially brought five charges against Gao. The court ultimately convicted her on four.

Her husband, Zhang Youkui, was sentenced to six years in prison for misappropriation of funds. Several other former Changsheng executives also received prison sentences in connection with the case.

Gao and her family appealed the original judgment, but the Jilin Provincial High People's Court later upheld the sentence.

The case marks the latest judicial development in a scandal that first came to national attention eight years ago.

The Vaccine Scandal That Shocked China

The controversy surrounding Changsheng Bio erupted in 2018 after regulators discovered serious violations at Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology, a subsidiary of the company.

A regulatory inspection found falsification and other serious irregularities involving the production records of rabies vaccines.

The revelations triggered a nationwide investigation and raised major concerns over vaccine production and pharmaceutical safety.

Gao, who had previously served in the Changchun Institute of Biological Products, was subsequently detained along with other executives as the investigation expanded.

Changsheng Bio was eventually forced to leave the stock market, with its shares being delisted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2019.

Court Finding on the Rabies Vaccine

One of the most closely watched aspects of the case involved the actual quality of the rabies vaccine.

According to the court findings reported after the final judgment, the antigen content and potency of the rabies vaccines produced by Changchun Changsheng met the relevant standards.

However, the company was found to have committed serious violations during production, including falsifying production records. The court therefore reached its criminal findings based on the conduct established in the case rather than treating the matter simply as a question of whether the vaccine's measured potency met the required standard.

This distinction has attracted considerable attention because the 2018 scandal was initially widely associated with concerns about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

A Bribery Case Within the Larger Scandal

The judgment also established that Changchun Changsheng had paid 20.9 million yuan in bribes between 2006 and 2014 to Wang Lifeng, then a senior official in the former State Food and Drug Administration's drug market supervision department.

According to the reported court findings, the payments were intended to obtain assistance concerning regulatory matters involving the company.

The bribery findings became one of the four charges for which Gao was ultimately convicted.

The case therefore extended beyond vaccine-production violations and included a series of financial and corporate offenses involving the company's former management.

Eight Years After the Scandal

The Changsheng Bio case has taken years to move through the legal process.

The company had been one of China's better-known vaccine manufacturers before the 2018 scandal severely damaged its reputation and business.

Gao was among the central figures in the company at the time. Her family was also a major shareholder, and Changsheng Bio had entered the stock market through a reverse merger in 2015.

Following the regulatory investigation, the company faced severe penalties and ultimately disappeared from the stock market.

The latest court ruling brings the criminal proceedings involving Gao to another major milestone.

For the former chairwoman, the final judgment means a life sentence and the forfeiture of her personal assets. For the broader pharmaceutical industry, the case has remained a prominent example of the legal consequences that can follow serious violations of manufacturing and corporate regulations.

The Changsheng Bio scandal first became a national issue in 2018. Eight years later, the final court ruling against Gao Junfang has brought the long-running case into a new phase.