Five Businessmen Charged with Multi-Million Dollar Bogus Medicine Scheme

Five business men appeared in the City of London Magistrates' Court accused of multi-million pound pharmaceutical plot involving bogus Chinese-manufactured life-saving drugs.

The charges were brought forth after a two-year investigation conducted by Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency, Britain’s regulatory equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

One of the accused is Ian Harding, a 57 year old businessman from Bradford on Avon. He is charged with conspiring with others to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists, the public and brand pharmaceutical companies by distributing counterfeit medicines. He is accused of selling bogus life saving medications portrayed as the brand names Casodex, Plavix and Zyprexa. Casodex is used to treat prostate cancer; Plavix is a drug prescribed to prevent blood clots to the heart and Zyprexa is an anti-psychotic drug.

Between 2005 and 2007 Harding allegedly acquired and sold counterfeit drugs through Consolidated Medical Supplies Ltd. This caused a massive recall forcing suspicious product to be pulled from pharmacists’ shelves, resulting in huge losses to the pharmaceutical industry.

Harding and his fellow defendants were sent for trial to Southwark Crown Court and will appear for a plea and directions hearing on December 15.

To view the entire article visit The Bath Chronicle at: www.thisisbath.co.uk.