17,000 pills of smuggled medicines for Covid-19 treatment and cancer treatment detected

Customs forces continued to seize smuggled medicine for Covid-19 treatment from India. Photo: T.Bình.

Continuing the inspection and control plan of smuggled medicines and medical equipment, on September 28 at a warehouse in Thach Loi commune, Soc Son, Hanoi, the Northern Anti-Smuggling Enforcement Unit (Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department, General Department of Vietnam Customs) chaired and worked with the Hanoi Express Customs Branch (Hanoi Customs Department) to inspect eight suspicious parcels.

Goods were imported from India in a non-merchant form to HCM City and were transferred to Hanoi on domestic flights.

On the bill of lading, the goods were shown as supplementary foods. However, through the inspection, the Customs force seized 17,000 smuggled pills for Covid-19 and cancer treatment.

Notably, according to the references, Covid-19 treatment medicine Remdesivir for injection was quite expensive and up to hundreds of USD/tablets. On the other hand, on the medicine bottles were labeled the words “For India Only” (it could be understood as "products only used for the Indian market").

Besides that, to bring Covid-19 treatment medicines out of India to Vietnam, the subjects disguised it by packing in boxes of medicine for treating liver disease.

Previously, related to this smuggling line, on September 14, at the above location, the Northern Anti-Smuggling Enforcement Team chaired and coordinated with HCM City Customs Department and the Hanoi Express Customs Branch (Hanoi Customs Department), Economic Police Department (C03, Ministry of Public Security) to inspect 15 packages showing signs of violation and seized more than 60,000 pills for Covid-19 and cancer treatment.

Thus, relating to this smuggling line, the Customs force has seized nearly 80,000 pills for Covid-19 and cancer treatment, the total value of the infringing shipment is estimated at more than VND10 billion.

It is known that one enterprise applied for licensing the Covid-19 medicines that were discovered in the infringing shipment are Fabiflu and Covifor, but as of September 30, they have not been licensed for circulation in Vietnam; several other medicinal products are in trial phase in India.

The case is being investigated and verified by the Northern Anti-Smuggling Enforcement Team to strictly handle in accordance with the regulations.