Convicted fake drug distributor is re-sentenced in USA

Kevin Xu, a Chinese national, has been re-sentenced by a US court for conspiring to distribute counterfeit and misbranded pharmaceuticals.

Xu was involved in the distribution of counterfeits on both sides of the Atlantic, including the introduction of fake versions of Eli Lilly's Zyprexa (olanzapine), AstraZeneca's prostate cancer treatment Casodex (bicalutamide) and Sanofi-Aventis' Plavix (clopidogrel) into the UK supply chain in 2007.

Back in January, Xu received a record six-and-a-half-year sentence without parole in a US court for introducing fake and misbranded drugs into US interstate commerce.

The case was brought by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI).

However, in March 4, a Court of Appeals overruled one charge brought against Xu on the grounds that there was "insufficient evidence to prove the pharmaceutical drug at issue in that charge was registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office."

The case was remanded to the district court for re-sentencing, and on April 23 Xu's original sentence was re-imposed, after the judge in the case ruled that the verdict imposed on the reversed count of conviction did not affect the original sentencing. Xu was also ordered to pay $1.29m in restitution to Eli Lilly and Pfizer.

Meanwhile, earlier this month the FDA debarred Xu from providing services in any capacity to a person that has an approved or pending drug product application.

"Xu is considered to be a significant supplier of counterfeit pharmaceutical due to his ability to manufacture large quantities of various counterfeit pharmaceuticals and packaging that was identical to authentic pharmaceuticals," said the ICE in a statement.

Chemists employed by drugmakers and the FDA have testified that the counterfeits supplied by Xu contained active ingredients that varied from amounts listed on the label as well as unknown impurities, it added.