Mr. Truong Quoc Cuong did not suspend the circulation of fake drugs despite receiving warnings.
Before being prosecuted and temporarily detained, Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong received many warnings at home and abroad related to the VN Pharma fake drug case.
According to the indictment issued by the Supreme People's Procuracy (prosecuting Deputy Minister Truong Quoc Cuong and 13 defendants), before being prosecuted, Mr. Truong Quoc Cuong had received many warnings related to the fake medicine case. However, Mr. Cuong did not take drastic actions to prevent and recall the medicine in accordance with the law.
Specifically, after the incidentVN Pharma caseIn phase I (2014), the Drug Administration issued Documents No. 14097 and 14654, sent by letter and email, requesting the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam to verify information about 4 Canadian pharmaceutical companies operating in Vietnam, including Health 2000 Canada. The document stated information such as: Email address, phone number, head office address, fax number of the Drug Administration to receive verification results.
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| Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong. |
The Drug Administration then received two response emails. The email dated October 2, 2014 from the Canadian Investigation Agency stated: "Health Canada would like to inform you that neither Helix Pharmaceuticals nor Health 2000 has a valid drug manufacturing license, nor does it have any products with a valid Drug Product Identifier. Therefore, these companies do not have any products licensed for sale in Canada."
After receiving information from the Canadian Investigation Agency, the subordinates had a report form No. 86/PCD, reporting to Mr. Truong Quoc Cuong about the information exchange between the two sides. Mr. Cuong wrote a note on the report form, with the content: "I have requested that an official document (with stamp and signature) be required. Request to keep the file for reporting to the authorities when requested."
The indictment determined that Mr. Truong Quoc Cuong was responsible for suspending circulation, recalling, and destroying drugs that violated or were suspected of violating regulations, seriously affecting the health of users and the community. "However, the defendant Truong Quoc Cuong did not properly and fully perform his assigned duties and responsibilities, causing very serious consequences," the indictment stated.After receiving information from the Canadian Investigation Agency, Mr. Cuong continued to receive an official dispatch from a unit of the Ministry of Public Security, mentioning that the authorities were investigating signs of violations in the case of counterfeit drugs produced by Health 2000 Canada. With such warnings, Mr. Cuong sent an official dispatch to the General Department of Customs requesting a temporary suspension of the import of drugs produced or supplied by Health 2000 Canada into Vietnam. However, Mr. Truong Quoc Cuong did not suspend the circulation of the drugs.
"The defendant Truong Quoc Cuong admitted that he did not properly perform his duties and responsibilities as the head of the Drug Administration Department, allowing his subordinates to commit many violations in organizing the appraisal of documents, concluding the minutes of the request for drug registration numbers; together with members of the Review Council, granted registration numbers for 7 Health 2000 Canada drugs while the documents did not meet the conditions for issuance. Regarding the failure to suspend the circulation of drugs when there was information suspecting that the origin was unknown, at the time of 2014, the defendant realized that there were not enough conditions to decide to suspend the circulation. However, up to now, the defendant realizes that the failure to suspend the circulation of drugs of unknown origin was not properly performing the assigned functions and tasks and repents of the consequences that occurred" - the indictment stated.
During the prosecution, Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong showed remorse for his responsibility in the fake medicine case. Mr. Cuong was also the first person to pay compensation (1.8 billion VND) out of 14 defendants prosecuted in this case.