Beijing police bust fake drug, fake hospital and fake doctor gang

Authorities in Beijing have busted a Hubei gang that created a fake hospital and posed as doctors to sell counterfeit medicines.
Police have arrested five people and seized 6 million RMB in takings from an operation that sold fake drugs online from a website that purported to represent a fictitious diabetes hospital operated by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
According to a report in the Peoples Daily, authorities were tipped off by a member of the public who spent 700 RMB on diabetes medications on the advice of 'doctors' from the Beijing Diabetes Hospital, which gave an address in the Miyun district of the city. The medications were advertised as being effective for diabetes and offered a money back guarantee if not effective. When the complainant found the medicines were useless he sought a refund but was refused, and he was unable to trace the 'hospital'.
When notified, the PSB assigned its food and drug investigation unit to the matter, and a painstaking two month investigation began, involving enquiries in locations across the country including Shenhzhen and Chengdu. The investigation eventually tracked the offenders down to the Shijingshan district of Beijing, and five suspects were apprehended.
The suspects are all from Hubei, from where it appears they obtained the raw materials. They then prepared the fake pills in Beijing and set up a bogus hospital website to sell them across China.
Since it was set up in 2011, the PSB food and drug investigation unit has smashed 1400 fake drug operations and recovered more than 600 million RMB in illegal earnings from counterfeit and fake drugs.

Lobby group says China's crackdown on counterfeit medicines is working

The Partnership for Safe Medicines says it has seen great results in China's fight against fake drugs

 A US advocacy group says Chinese crack down on counterfeiters is starting to work and that new Beijing unit will help. 
The Partnership for Safe Medicines – a not for profit campaigning group whose members include PhRMA and the WHO – gave its review of the situation late last month at the launch of its PSM China initiative. PSM China Bai Huiliang chairman said: “China’s resolve in protecting its citizens from the dangers of counterfeit drugs has yielded great results and shows tremendous potential for the future.”
He cited the Chinese Government’s August arrest of 2,000 people suspected of being involved in the production of fake drugs and its seizure of $182m worth of counterfeits as evidence of the progress being made.
Huiliang added that: “With the help of our partners, PSM China will support the Chinese Government’s efforts to enhance drug safety and improve public health.”
PSM China will focus on raising awareness of the potential harm caused by fake drugs and on informing patients, physicians, manufacturers and distributors of these dangers. The group will also teach people how to spot fake drugs.
The launch was welcomed by Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter who said: “The biopharmaceutical industry applauds the PSM China initiative as an innovative solution to protect patients and improve drug safety.”
“Make no mistake: pharmaceutical counterfeiting – and drug safety in general – is not China’s problem, or the task of any one country.  It is a shared global public health priority, and, therefore, a domestic concern in the United States, EU, China, and many other countries all over the world.  And one resounding lesson is that we can all benefit by working together.”
PSM China is the second international initiative the US advocacy group has established.
In December 2010, the organisation set up PSM India.
Source: In-pharmatechnologist.com

Shanghai man in coma after taking adulterated health tonic

"Health tonic" contained sildenafil

A 73-year-old local man in Shanghai was revived from a coma after taking a "health tonic" found to contain the same active ingredient as Viagra, officials from the No. 411 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army said yesterday.
The patient, surnamed Zhang, said a saleswoman went to his neighborhood in Hongkou District a week ago to sell a medicine that she claimed were made from ginseng and Chinese caterpillar fungus, a TCM tonic said to help with immunity and cardiovascular health. He paid 350 yuan (US$55.56) for four packs and started to take the medicine.
He fainted suddenly at home on Monday and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors found that there was no ginseng or caterpillar fungus in the medicine but starch and sildenafil, the main ingredient in Viagra.
Doctor Bai Yingtang said the patient suffered a serious adverse reaction since he took drugs for heart disease regularly as well as the sildenafil, which affects blood pressure and the heart.
"If he had not received treatment in time, he could have died," Bai said. "The patient has been in stable condition after treatment."
Zhang's family found no producer's name or contact on the package and the number left by the saleswoman didn't work.
The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration "has been tightening its oversight, but residents, especially the elderly, must be careful about such claims and see a doctor for medicine, including traditional Chinese medicine, instead of purchasing health tonics randomly," said Du Bing, an official with the FDA.
Read more: Shanghai Daily