Imitation medicines sold in RI

Imitation medicines sold in RI

KUALA LUMPUR (DPA): A Malaysian fake medicines syndicate that was busted this week by law enforcement authorities in Penang state had been exporting its products to neighboring Thailand and Indonesia, news reports said yesterday.

Officers from the domestic trade and consumer affairs enforcement division, who on Monday raided a shop and a house where the imitation products were being packed for sale, found documents showing the medicines had been exported to the two countries.

In the raid, the officers seized about 500,000 ringgit (US$201,600) worth of fake products that carried the brand names of popular medicines, including the painkillers Panadol and Ponstan, nasal spray Vapex, eyedrops Eye-mo and Optrex, Vicks vapour rub, Supradyn multivitamins as well as Nivea cream and Cuticura talcum powder.

Also confiscated were about 1 million ringgit worth of machinery and about 500 drums of paracetamol and bags of corn and tapioca starch, believed to be used to make the fake Panadol pills.

The bulk of the fake medicines was exported to the two neighboring countries, with the rest sold in small towns and villages in Malaysia to avoid detection by authorities.

Four people were arrested in the raid. A man, reported to be the owner of the shop, was charged in a Penang court Tuesday with committing an offense under the Trade Description Act. He faces a fine of up to 250,000 ringgit and three years in jail, if convicted.