Indian man charged with selling fake cancer med Keytruda

An Indian national has been charged in Houston, Texas, with selling and shipping "tens of thousands of dollars" worth of falsified cancer medicines into the US market, including Merck & Co's big-selling immunotherapy Keytruda.

Sanjay Kumar (43) of Bihar, India, is accused along with various co-conspirators of arranging for the sale and shipment of counterfeit Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and other unidentified cancer medicines to individuals in the US. Keytruda is one of the most widely-prescribed cancer therapies in the US, with global sales of more than $25bn last year, and is used to treat a wide range of solid tumours as well as some blood cancers.

Court documents suggest that when challenged by an undercover agent carrying out a test purchase about the authenticity of the medicine, Kumar said it was not possible to supply genuine Keytruda at the agreed price – $3,500 for two 100mg vials of the drug – but added the that the supplied product would "look the same."

On testing, the vials were found to contain no active ingredient, in another example of counterfeiters falsifying high-value pharmaceutical products in the interest of making a quick profit, regardless of the consequences on people’s health.

Kumar was arrested on June 26 in Houston after travelling to the US to "conduct further negotiations aimed at expanding his business selling fake Keytruda in the US market," according to a statement from the FDA.

He has been charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit drugs and four counts of trafficking in counterfeit drugs and - if convicted – faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.