Alleged Fake Cancer Drug Conspirator Pleads Ignorance
Ex-chief of a British pharmaceutical wholesaler, Richard Kemp, pleaded ignorance on the stand when accused of conspiring to sell counterfeit cancer medication made in Singapore to British residents.
The Flintshire Chronicle reports that he says he didn’t know he was funding a counterfeit operation when he agreed to bankroll Consolidated Medical Supplies (CMS) and their purchase of counterfeit anti-psychotic drugs for 400,000 euros. The prosecution says he did, and even drove Peter Gillespie, the head of the conspiracy, to a warehouse near Brussels Airport in Belgium to collect the Chinese-made fakes.
Kemp asserts he believed that the drugs were French-manufactured and would be re-packaged for the UK market by CMS. About 100,000 doses of fake drugs were distributed to patients, remarked the prosecution.
After a two-year investigation by the Medicines and Health Care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), charges were brought against the alleged conspirators. CMS, based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, had its license revoked by the MHRA in January, 2008, reports the Flintshire Chronicle.
The defendants are charged with the distribution of fake prostate cancer treatment, counterfeit blood clot and heart attack preventatives and a fake anti-psychotic drugs prescribed to schizophrenic and bipolar patients.
Kemp is one of five defendants who have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists and the public by dishonestly distributing for gain counterfeit medicines. They also deny selling or supplying the three drugs without authorization and selling or supplying counterfeit goods.
Peter Gillespie alone denies one count of breaching a company director disqualification order.
The drugs were manufactured by the notorious Chinese pharmaceutical counterfeiter Lu Xu, aka Kevin Xu, currently serving a prison sentence for a similar scam in the United States.