Second man pleads guilty to falsified HIV scam in US

Phil Taylor, 03-Oct-2023

A second man identified as one of the ringleaders of an HIV medication counterfeiting scam has pleaded guilty in a US court.

Miami, Florida resident Armando Herrera (43) has admitted conspiracy to introduce adulterated and misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, according to the Department of Justice and is facing a maximum penalty of five years in prison when sentenced, due to take place on 21 December.

Herrera and co-conspirators including Lazaro Roberto Hernandez – also considered to be a kingpin in the gang who pleaded guilty to his part in the scheme and was sentenced to 180 months in prison in July – distributed at least $16.7m of adulterated HIV drugs that were dispensed to unsuspecting patients throughout the US.

In the scam, falsified versions of Gilead Sciences’ Biktarvy (bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide) and Descovy (emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide) were mixed in with batches of genuine product with fake pedigrees to make them harder to detect. The fraudsters used authentic Gilead bottles that were filled with completely different drugs that were not made by the company.

In some cases, they illegally acquired genuine pills from vulnerable people, such as those who were homeless or suffering from drug addiction, and repackaged them in used bottles.

The gang established companies in Florida, Texas, Washington, and California that they used to sell and distribute adulterated prescription drugs, primarily HIV medications, to wholesale pharmaceutical suppliers.

Hernandez was arrested in June 2022 on suspicion of distributing more than $230m in adulterated and fraudulent medicines.

Gilead, which launched civil lawsuits against the pair, said last year that “counterfeit and tampered medicines can result in serious and or life-threatening health risks. They are not equivalent in quality, safety and/or efficacy to genuine medicines. They often do not contain the correct medicine or amount of active ingredient and may also contain impurities.”