Nguyen Minh Hung, former general director of Vietnam Pharma Joint-Stock Company, at the High-level People's Court in HCM City on May 20 (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - TheHigh-level People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City on May 20 upheld theverdict handed down at the first-instance trial in a caseinvolving the “manufacturing and trading of counterfeitmedicine”.
At the first-instancetrial, Nguyen Minh Hung, former Chairman of the Board of Directors and GeneralDirector of the Vietnam Pharma Joint Stock Company (VN Pharma), was sentencedto 17 years in prison, and Vo Manh Cuong, former Director of the H&CInternational Maritime Trading Co., Ltd, to 20 years.
Both faced charges of“manufacturing and trading counterfeit medicines for treatment orprevention of diseases” under Article 157 of the Penal Code 1999.
The remaining10 defendants were sentenced from 3-12 years in prison. Hung did notappeal after the first-instance trial.
However, seven of the 12defendants in the case, including Cuong, filed an appeal against theverdict reached at the first-instance trial.
Cuong said he did not play amastermind role as mentioned in the first-instance verdict and that he didnot know the drugs were counterfeit.
But the High-level People’sProcuracy in HCM City rejected the contention, saying Cuong directlycontacted people who made counterfeit drugs and asked for permissionto import the batch of fake drugs.
According to the People’sProcuracy, the wrongful acts of the defendants were dangerous to society andthe sentence at the first-instance trial was “lawful andappropriate”.
VN Pharma was established in October2011 with capital of 25 billion VND (1.075 million USD), rising to 40billion VND in 2014. Hung owns most of the shares.
Since its operation, thecompany has imported various kinds of drugs.
From 2013 to 2014, Hung orderedCuong to buy imported medicine that was allegedly manufactured by Canada’sHelix Pharmaceuticals Company and supply the drugs to Vietnamese hospitals.
The order included 9,300boxes of 500mg capsules of H-Capita, a cancer treatment drug. The consignmentwas worth around 5.3 billion VND.
Hung said he ordered his staffto fake documents related to the drugs and submit them to the DrugAdministration of Vietnam, which operates under the Ministry of Health.
Hung also faked receipts andpayment procedures to acquire import licences from the ministry.
In April 2014, the DrugAdministration of Vietnam questioned the origin of the drugs and decidedto inspect the company’s shipments.
The Ministry of Healthconcluded that the H-Capita 500mg batch contained 97 percentof the active ingredient capecitabine, which is of unknown origin and poorquality, and must not be used as a medicine for humans.
The Procuracy said Hung’sactions caused damage of more than 6 billion VND (255,320 USD) to VN Pharma./.
VNA
