Six people have gone on trial in Shanghai on charges of making an unlicensed version of the anti-bird flu drug Tamiflu, newspapers and the court announced Friday.
Lead defendant Wang Xun is accused of illegally purchasing the Tamiflu formula for 150,000 yuan (about US$20,000; �15,000) and then joining with others to pirate and sell the ersatz drug, Shanghai's Youth Daily and other newspapers said.
Shanghai's No. 2 Intermediate Court confirmed the trial began on Thursday, but gave no other details.
Police uncovered the scam through advertisements the group placed on the Internet, the reports said. In May 2006, they arrested 10 people, including Wang, and confiscated more than 2,600 capsules of the bogus drug in raids on two workshops, the reports said.
Pharmacists who purchased the drug told police they had doubts about its origin, but bought it anyway because it was much cheaper than the genuine product produced by Swiss pharmaceutical maker Roche Holding AG and its licensees.
The case is typical of the wide-scale violation of intellectual property rights across almost all industries in China, as well as deep problems with medical integrity in the country's troubled health system.
In another trial involving a high-profile drug, Viagra maker Pfizer Inc. recently appealed a Chinese court ruling that lets a rival use one of the Chinese-language names for its popular anti-impotence drug.
Tamiflu is seen as perhaps the best initial defense if the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed at least 163 people worldwide and prompted the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia since late 2003, mutates into a form spread easily among humans.
Sales of Tamiflu, which governments around the world have been stockpiling to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic, soared 68 percent last year to 2.63 billion francs (US$2.11 billion; �1.63 billion), largely on government orders, according to Roche.
To prevent hoarding, piracy and profiteering, last year China's Health Ministry declared itself the sole legal purchaser and repository for Tamiflu. Individual hospitals and pharmacies have no right to purchase and stock the drug.
Roche turned over all existing stocks and licensed production in China to drug maker Shanghai Pharmaceutical.
A secretary at Roche's Shanghai office said no spokesman was available for comment Friday. A spokesman for Shanghai Pharmaceutical said the company had only learned about the trial from the media and had no comment. Neither gave their names.
According to the reports, Chinese pharmacies were scrambling to fill orders as supplies of pricey imported Tamiflu were running out in late 2005.
Wang seized the opportunity, newspapers said.
He is accused of illicitly buying the Tamiflu formula and joining with accomplices to buy its main active ingredient, oseltamivir phosphate, and empty gel capsules.
The finished product was packaged in boxes bearing Roche's trademark and sold to pharmacies through a sales network allegedly controlled by a local businessman.
The reports did not say where Wang bought the Tamiflu formula and it was not clear who else was on trial alongside him.
Wang earlier had been convicted of counterfeiting Viagra, reports said. They said he did not contest the charges against him.
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