Former deputy health minister sentenced to 4 years in prison

Former Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday for “lack of responsibility, causing serious consequences” in a counterfeit medicine scam.

Cuong was banned from holding any office related to medicine and pharmacy within three years after serving the sentence, the court ruled.

Nguyen Minh Hung, former Chairman of VN Pharma Company, received an additional 18 years in prison for the crime of "trading in counterfeit goods as medical drugs".

Combined with a 17-year prison sentence in the counterfeit drug case of VN Pharma phase 1, the defendant must serve 30 years in prison, the highest level for a fixed-term penalty.

The remaining 12 defendants were sentenced to two to 20 years in prison. The defendants who committed the crime of "trading in counterfeit goods as medical drugs" were forced to pay damage compensation, estimated at VND31.5 billion ($1.36 million). Nguyen Minh Hung will have to pay VND10 billion.

The jury found the case "particularly serious" because the goods were counterfeited to treat human diseases, of various types, most of which were antibiotics against severe infections.

Medicine is a special item, exclusively managed by the State. The defendants’ act "has severely affected the health care policy of the State towards the people and reduced the reputation of the health sector".

The jury also recommended the Ministry of Health review the entire drug appraisal process, especially foreign drugs, due to many loopholes, especially in the appraisal stage.

"The Ministry of Health needs to review imported drugs to adjust prices so that people can use drugs at the most reasonable prices," the panel suggested.

Customs officers were also responsible for the case, the jury stated. The panel therefore requested the investigative agency to continue clarifying the responsibilities of customs officials related to other shipments of VN Pharma to find if there are any violations.

The court ruled that, in 2008-2010, Nguyen Le Xuan Khang, a Vietnamese citizen of Canadian nationality, along with Nguyen Minh Hung, former board chairman and general director of VN Pharma Company, forged documents on drugs labeled Health 2000 Canada, and hired two companies to apply for registration numbers.

Because of "lack of responsibility or personal motives", some officials of the Drug Administration of Vietnam committed violations during the appraisal and approval process.

As a result, seven counterfeit medicines labeled Health 2000 Canada were granted registration numbers, while many new drugs have been traded and imported via many fake contracts, annexes and invoices.

In this case, drugs totaling 838,100 boxes had their price raised from more than $1.2 million when imported to more than $2.5 million.

More than 600,000 boxes of counterfeit drugs were sold by VN Pharma to businesses, hospitals and pharmacies, illicitly earning the firm more than VND31.5 billion ($1.36 million).

In the case, Khang reached agreements to sell six counterfeit medicines labeled Health 2000 Canada to five domestic enterprises through 36 contracts. The total amount was nearly 1.6 million boxes, worth $4.6 million.

Khang remains on the run.