Man sentenced to 36 months in prison for producing nearly 6,000 boxes of counterfeit medicine.

In a short period of time, the suspects produced nearly 6,000 boxes of counterfeit medicine, successfully selling thousands of boxes and earning tens of millions of dong in profit.

On April 22, after a day of trial, the Hanoi People's Court decided to sentence Nguyen Anh Van (34 years old, Quang Ninh) to 36 months in prison, Bui Van Hiep (31 years old, Nam Dinh) to 30 months in prison, and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thanh (35 years old, Thanh Hoa) to 18 months of suspended sentence for the crime of producing and trading counterfeit medicines.

Nguyen Anh Van (standing) and Bui Van Hiep at the court.

Having known each other before, and knowing that Lumbrotine, a medication for treating and preventing strokes, and Zinc-Kid, a zinc supplement for children, were selling well, Van and Hiep discussed producing them themselves to make a profit.

Nguyen Anh Van went to a company specializing in functional foods in Dong Da district (Hanoi) to buy over 150 kg of zinc granules at 100,000 VND/kg and 21,600 capsules at 17,400 VND/box. Afterward, Van went to a number of packaging and printing facilities to order cardboard boxes, instruction leaflets, small plastic bags for the zinc granules, and labels with the words "Central Pharmaceutical Company No. 3" to affix to the packaging.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thanh and a young man used teaspoons to scoop zinc granules into small nylon bags, then used a heat-sealing machine to seal the bags. Afterwards, 25 small nylon bags containing zinc granules were packed into a cardboard box, along with an instruction leaflet inside, making it look like a genuine product.

Similarly, for the Lumbrotine brand of medication for treating and preventing strokes, since the capsules were originally dietary supplements, Van and his accomplices simply inserted the instruction leaflet into each box and affixed a label bearing the brand name of Central Pharmaceutical Company No. 3 on the outside… Van distributed all of these counterfeit drugs to pharmacies in various locations through Hiep.

Towards the end of 2014, while Hiep was preparing to sell 150 boxes of Lumbrotine and 80 boxes of Zine-Kid to a customer near the gate of the Hanoi University of Water Resources, he was discovered by the police.

Upon learning of Hiep's arrest, Van immediately ordered his accomplices to flush all the materials down the toilet, destroy all labels and packaging, and hide the machine at his sister's house.

During the investigation, the police determined that in a short period of time, Van and his accomplices had produced 5,000 boxes of Zine-Kid medicine and 700 bottles of Lumbrotine medicine. Of these, Van sold thousands of counterfeit boxes on the market and earned an illegal profit of 44 million VND.

According to PLO