The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7331 p13
1/8 January 2005

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· Drug donations
· CAM
· Pharmacy in Scotland
· Community pharmacy
· Prescribing
· Prosecution
· New contract (2)
· CPD
· Registration exam (2)
· Barcodes
· Retention fee (2)
· New Year's resolutions
· The Society
· The Journal (2)

Letters to the Editor

Prosecution

What message does sentencing send out?

From Mr C. Anton

Your story on the successful prosecution of the counterfeit medicines factory (PJ, 11 December 2004, p843) does not go into the details of the sentences handed down by the judge. This is a pity as they may beggar belief.

The ringleader got one year for the Medicines Act Section 8 offences (manufacturing without a licence), three years for the Misuse of Drugs Act offences (supplying Class C drugs), and five years for the Trade Marks Act offences for breaching Pfizer’s copyright on Viagra. The other jailed man got one year, two years and three years, respectively, for the same offences. Just exactly what sort of signal does this send out? That breaching copyright of a large multinational is far more serious than flooding the market with dangerous drugs?

Christopher Anton
Pharmacy Department
City Hospital,
Birmingham

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