Former Deputy Health Minister Truong Quoc Cuong (first from right) and defendants (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Former Deputy Health Minister Truong Quoc Cuong has had his sentence reduced to three years from four years for showing “lack of responsibility causing serious consequences” over the trading of counterfeit medicine labelled as Health 2000 Canada.
During the appeal on September 30, judges at the High-Level People’s Court in Hanoi explained their decision for the fact that Cuong paid 500 million VND to remedy the consequences. While working in the medical sector, he was awarded over 50 certificates of merit and order. During the investigation, he also confessed and repented.
Pham Anh Kiet, former General Director of Saigon Pharmaceutical Company, also had his sentence reduced by one year to 16 years for trading fake medicine.
The court upheld sentences for other defendants who were given terms ranging from 2 to 16 years.
According to the verdict of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, as head of the Health Ministry’s Drug Administration (DAV) from 2007 to 2016, Cuong failed to fulfill his responsibility in supervising and inspecting the work of experts in assessing and granting licences for seven kinds of drugs, leading to the approval of dossiers for the import and consumption of six out of seven counterfeit drugs, labelled Health 2000 Canada, in Vietnam with a total value of over 148 billion VND (6.43 million USD).
After the drugs were imported and consumed in Vietnam, although he received information about the suspected origins of the drugs, Cuong did not try to stop their circulation. As a result, domestic medical establishments continued to use counterfeit drugs to treat patients at a total value of over 3.7 billion VND.
Meanwhile, former DAV deputy director Nguyen Viet Hung did not perform his assigned tasks and duties, thus failing to detect and stop wrongdoings of his subordinates in assessing and licensing the drugs./.
