Shanghai police have arrested 13 people accused of making fake copies of the bird flu treatment Tamiflu, the Financial Times reported. The Shanghai Public Security Bureau said the group had produced around 400 kilograms of the drug, or around 5,000 pills, which they then sold at a US$200,000 profit to other parts of China and several countries in south-east Asia. The surge in the demand for the drug over the last year has created an opportunity for counterfeiters, although Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche is rapidly expanding its production capacity for Tamiflu and has awarded licences to two Chinese manufacturers, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals and HEC Group. Police said the pills had some of the chemical properties of Tamiflu, but were not nearly as effective as genuine versions.
Categories