Former Deputy Minister Truong Quoc Cuong appeared in court in the case of counterfeit drugs of VN Pharma

After nearly 3 years of investigating the case, on the morning of May 12, the Hanoi People’s Court is expected to open a trial in 6 days, with Judge Dao Ba Son presiding. 28 lawyers registered to defend 14 defendants, in which Mr Truong Quoc Cuong There are 6 lawyers.

Former Deputy Minister Cuong and 13 people were prosecuted in 3 groups of crimes: Lack of responsibility causes serious consequences, Abuse of positions and powers while performing official duties and The sale of counterfeit goods is a cure-all.

The Hanoi People’s Procuracy determined that in 2008-2010, Nguyen Le Xuan Khang (a Vietnamese citizen of Canada) discussed with Nguyen Minh Hung (former Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of VN Pharma Joint Stock Company) to fake drug records. bearing the Health 2000 Canada label to obtain a registration number from two companies in its name.

Some officials of the Drug Administration of Vietnam because of “lack of responsibility or personal motives” have violated their official duties during the appraisal and approval process. As a result, seven counterfeit drugs (Extrafovir; Kaderox-250; Kafotax-1000; MGP Axinex-1000, MGP Mosinase-625, H2K Levofloxacin and H2K Ciprofloxacin) labeled Health 2000 Canada were issued registration numbers, the authorities reported. tie.

From now, a large number of new drugs are traded and imported by many fake contracts and annexes and vouchers.

In this case, the total amount of imported drugs 838,100 boxes, worth more than 1.2 million USD, equivalent to 26 billion VND, was raised to more than 2.5 million USD, equivalent to 54 billion VND. The number of counterfeit drugs has been sold by VN Pharma to businesses, hospitals and pharmacies more than 600,000 boxes, earning an illegal profit of more than 31.5 billion VND, the authorities allege.

Grandfather Truong Quoc Cuong, then the Director of the Drug Administration of Vietnam, Standing Vice Chairman of the Appraisal Council, was accused of improperly and inadequately performing the assigned responsibilities. His lack of supervision resulted in 6/7 counterfeit Health 2000 drugs being imported and consumed, with a value of more than VND 148 billion.

Authorities said that despite receiving a lot of information about Health 2000 Canada drugs of unknown origin and origin, Mr. Cuong did not direct the suspension of circulation, recall or destruction. This resulted in domestic medical facilities continuing to use Health 2000 Canada for treatment, with a total value of more than VND 3.7 billion.

Khang was directly identified with an agreement to buy and sell 6 counterfeit drugs through 36 contracts, totaling nearly 1.6 million boxes, worth $4.6 million (equivalent to 94.6 billion). But now Khang is on the run, the investigation agency will continue to handle it when caught.

Thanh Lam – Pham Du