Police nab 17 fake-drug manufacturers, dealers
Xinhua, November 3, 2013
Chinese police have captured 17 suspects who were allegedly involved in the production and sale of counterfeit medicines, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced Saturday.
Under the direction of the MPS and the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), police and CFDA's provincial branches in Guangxi, Hunan, Anhui and Henan seized more than 16,600 bottles of fake medicine and vaccines, said a statement of the MPS.
The cases involved over 20 million yuan (3.28 million U.S. dollars) in market value, said the statement.
The seized medicines include more than 3,400 bottles of fake human serum albumin, 12,000 bottles of fake immune globulin, 1,200 doses of fake rabies vaccine, as well as equipment used to make counterfeit drugs, said the statement.
According to police investigation, two suspects, surnamed Liu and Zhou, had purchased empty medicine bottles and materials used for "drug production" in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, since May 2012.
They cleaned the bottles with tap water and filled them with dyed distilled water, then sold the fake medicine under a brand of a pharmaceutical company based in Shanghai, police said.
Investigation found that Liu and Zhou sold the fake human serum albumin to another suspect, surnamed Zhao, at the price of eight yuan per bottle, which were eventually sold at some clinics at the price ranging from 400 yuan to 500 yuan per bottle.
Police also busted a criminal ring which had been involved in the production and sale of fake rabies vaccines in Henan Province since 2009.
The case surfaced in Nov. 2012 after a patient in Guangxi reported adverse reaction after using human serum albumin, said the police.
But the statement did not reveal how the suspects had evaded market supervision to sell fake drugs to patients, since human serum albumin and rabies vaccines are subject to strict management.
The statement did not mention how many fake medicines had been sold out, but stressed that "CFDA authorities and police are making utmost efforts to trace and recall fake medicines which have been sold."
