US seeks extradition in fake medicines case

The US is seeking to extradite more than a dozen individuals and firms linked to an online pharmacy operation accused of supplying counterfeit and unapproved medicines.

The extradition requests - made to the Canadian and UK governments - are in relation to the operations of CanadaDrugs.com, which has been accused of smuggling $78m-worth of illicit drugs into the US, according to an Associated Press report.

Some of the drugs were mislabelled, others were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and two types of cancer drugs turned out to be counterfeit, according to court papers.

All told, 14 companies and individuals are cited in the requests, including Kristjan Thorkelsen, CanadaDrugs.com's chief executive, along with a subsidiary in the UK called River East Supplies and two Barbados subsidiaries - Rockley Ventures and Global Drug Supply.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a case brought against Ram Kamath, the only individual among the 14 who has been brought to court, were dropped last month.

The charges were dismissed under a deferred prosecution agreement - which gives a defendant a certain time period to meet requirements set by prosecutors in order to avoid prosecution. The nature of those requirements has not been divulged.