Couple stand trial for selling imported cancer medication
By Cao Siqi Source: Global Times Published: 2014-11-11 1:03:01
A couple in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province recently stood trial for selling fake cancer medication bought in India, according to a court in Nanjing on Monday.
Zhou Rongqiang, the court's judge, told the Global Times on Monday that the couple, Zhao Hongjiang and his wife, Ma Yalin, were accused of purchasing medicines from India, transporting them to China, and selling them online.
Indian-made generic cancer drugs, often containing the same active ingredients as the patented medicines they are based on, sell at enormous discount compared with their patented counterparts.
However, the vast majority of these drugs are not approved for sale in China. "Selling medicines produced overseas requires a certification by China's drug watchdog. If not, the drugs are seen as fake," said Zhou.
In the court, Zhao said that he was trying to save people's lives, and that most of the drugs were brought for his friends instead of for sale, reported Nanjing-based Modern Express Monday.
Zhou said that Zhao was sent to work in India in 2010, where he would often buy cancer medication for friends. Smelling a business opportunity, Zhao found local pharmaceutical agents willing to sell him drugs at marked-down prices, and asked the agents to mail them to China.
"They sold the medicines for over 320,000 yuan ($52,000) and made 100,000 yuan in profit," said Zhou.
Local police arrested the couple in their house on July 4 after receiving a tip-off, discovering 31 boxes of generic drugs imported from India.
The local procuratorate said that the medicine was not registered, and that in selling them Zhao and Ma broke the law, an offense punishable by a fine and up to three years in jail. Prosecutors on the case have requested sentences of a year and a half for both Zhao and Ma, with the possibility of reprieve. The court has yet to rule on the case.