Vaccine maker alleges website's employees attempted blackmail

A leading vaccine maker said on Thursday that business news website 21cbh, which has been in the spotlight for alleged extortion by its journalists, tried to blackmail it but failed.

BioKangtai, a hepatitis B vaccine maker in Shenzhen, was wrongly suspected of being connected with the deaths of 17 newborn babies between Dec 13 and Dec 31. Authorities announced in January that none of the cases were linked to the vaccine, and BioKangtai's products were safe.

"The journalists of 21cbh issued a couple of stories concerning the cases, which were malicious to the company and distorted the facts," Miao Xiang, spokesman of BioKangtai, said in a media briefing.