London counterfeit medicines factory closed down
Blister packing equipment at the illicit drugs factory |
Three men have been prosecuted and two of them jailed after the discovery by police of two illicit medicines factories making counterfeit medicines in north London in April this year.
The two jailed men pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to supply
Class C Controlled Drugs (diazepam and nitrazepam), conspiracy to commit
trade mark offences in relation to Pfizer’s Viagra and conspiracy
to manufacture or assemble medicines containing steroids. The third man
received a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy
to manufacture or assemble a sildenafil product.
After the discovery, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
investigators inspected the site and assisted the police with the prosecutions.
They estimated that the factory had the capacity to manufacture 500,000
tablets a day.
Detective Inspector Andy Chalmers said: “The scale of production
was staggering, with sophisticated production equipment and millions
of tablets stored on pallets.
Passing sentence at Harrow Crown Court on 19 November, Judge Barrington
Black said: “Considerable sums are invested by pharmaceutical companies
to develop
products in a safe and controlled way. It is a serious matter when the
public are
hoodwinked to the extent that such
products, although structurally akin to the
correct ones, are being produced in an
environment without the necessary
precautions, in a makeshift and dangerous manner.”
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader