Vietnamese court sentences drug counterfeiters

A court in Vietnam has imposed sentences totalling more than 21 years on six people convicted of producing and trading in counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

The leader of the ring, Mai Cong Phu, was sentenced to five years in jail, the maximum possible sentence under Vietnamese law, reports Viet Nam News.

Phu was arrested in January 2009 carrying a bag of counterfeit pharmaceuticals in an operation which led to the seizure of millions of counterfeit medicine doses, including fake versions of Ipsen Pharma's vasodilator product Tanakan (Ginkgo biloba extract), Novartis' painkiller Voltaren (diclofenac) and Bristol Myers Squibb's antibiotic Cefzil (cefprozil).