GSK wins award for fake drug sting

Counterfeit drug racketeers were struck when agents for UK-headquartered global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline organized a sting operation in China. The operation resulted in the arrest of a drug trafficking gang and the confiscation of more than L5.0 million ($10.0 million) in fake products, according to the UK-based Times newspaper.

China's Quality Brands Protection Committee, the country's leading anticounterfeiting body, made an award in late April to GSK in recognition of the firm's public service in exposing and assisting in the prosecution of intellectual property criminals.

The operation began in October 2004 with the discovery by GSK agents in China that Xing Tai Ming Shen, a Hebei province-based pharmaceutical firm that also manufactured legitimate drugs for the local market, was making fakes. In cooperation with China's Public Security Ministry and police forces, GSK arranged for undercover agents to obtain samples from the Xing Tai City production facility. After a major order was placed by the agents for a container load of pain relief drugs destined for the UK port of Felixstowe, police arrested several counterfeit gang members and carried out raids on Xing Tai Ming Shen facilities in August 2005.