Three Month Trial of Alleged Fake Cancer Drug Distributors Ends
Prosecuting lawyer, Andrew Marshall, told Croydon Crown Court, that the five defendants accused of selling fake Chinese-manufactured medicine were deliberately “protect[ing] their dirty business.”
Five pharmaceutical wholesaler businessmen, who had done business together legitimately for many years, are accused of deliberately purchasing fake cancer, heart disease, and mental health medications and selling them into the legitimate supply chain in Great Britian. After their exposure, government officials cleared pharmacy shelves of these products to find the 73,000 fake packages hidden among them, reports the Flintshire Chronicle.
The prosecution claimed in his closing speech that the defendants continued importing the fakes even after a drug wholesaler, AAH Pharmaceuticals raised concerns to them, which eventually led to the criminal case. The wholesaler said the medicines supplied by the group were “tatty and well travelled” claimed the prosecution.
Said Marshall, “Their priorities were to protect their dirty business and continue to sell counterfeit pharmaceuticals.”
Marshall also claims that the defendants knew the drugs were counterfeits purchased from China. “He did know their source and he was prepared to lie to you. He saw the Air Singapore stickers and the invoices to Mauritius-based Multiscope,” said the prosecutor to the jury.
Additionally Marshall claims that water-damaged fake drugs were repackaged by two the defendants, the Gillespie brothers, and then collected by another, Kemp, who then sold into the legitimate supply chain.
Said Marshall, “That first production run was driven away by Kemp. That in itself is extraordinary and not the usual way of doing things.
“It shows Kemp physically handled the boxes containing the property, the labeling and packaging he had paid for,” reported The Flintshire Chronicle.
After several shipments seemed unusual, AAH Pharmaceuticals sent a drug sample for testing to a NHS laboratory, and simultaneously another wholesaler, OTC, also tested a sample. This evidence began the investigation leading to this trial. About 100,000 doses of fake drugs ended up in patients’ hands, reports The Flintshire Chronicle.