17 accused of making and selling fake drugs_美文

17 accused of making and selling fake drugs

Police said Liu and Zhou sold the fake human serum albumin to another suspect surnamed Zhao for 8 yuan a bottle, and they were eventually resold at some clinics for 400 to 500 yuan a bottle.

The suspects managed to sell at least 8,000 bottles of albumin before they were caught, police said.

Albumin, distilled from healthy human blood, is mainly used for the treatment of patients who have serious injuries and have lost a lot of blood. Using contaminated albumin can lead to septicemia or even death, the China Food and Drug Administration said.

The supply of albumin does not meet the market demand, a situation that police say has fueled a black market.

The investigation started in November 2017 when a patient in Liuzhou, Guangxi, had an adverse reaction to fake albumin, the ministry said.

Mao Zhenbin, director of the China Food and Drug Administration's inspection bureau, said at a news conference on Oct 16 that many fake medicines are sold on the Internet, making it difficult for authorities to oversee them.

The administration also found many small clinics bought fake medicine through illegal channels and sold them to patients, he said.

Police have been cracking down on fake drug production and sales for several years.

During a campaign last year, police caught more than 1,900 suspects in 190 cities who allegedly made and sold 1.16 billion yuan in fake drugs, the Ministry of Public Security said.