Police in Vietnam arrested two executives of a local pharmaceutical giant for an extended investigation into the company’s illegal imports of more than US$750,000 worth of cancer medicine.
Nguyen Tri Nhat, deputy director-general of Ho Chi Minh City-based VN Pharma, and Phan Cam Loan, deputy head of the company’s trade department, were taken into custody on “smuggling” charges.
Police said the duo acted as accomplices for Nguyen Minh Hung, chairman and CEO of VN Pharma, to forge papers for the imports and distribute the drugs in the local market in April 2014.
Hung and another accomplice, Vo Manh Cuong, were arrested in September 2014.
VN Pharma has branches in Hanoi and the Mekong Delta provinces of An Giang and Ca Mau.
It won many large public contracts to supply medicine to hospitals in HCMC prior to the scandal.
