Hong Kong customs has made the largest seizure of counterfeit Chinese herbal and Western medicine in a decade with seven people arrested in raids across the city, according to an official.
The haul of 2.4 million tablets, including ones to treat impotence, and 470 litres of bogus liquefied medicine could have been sold for HK$13.8 million (US$1.8 million), Superintendent Guy Fong Wing-kai, of customs’ intellectual property investigation group, said on Friday.
The bogus medicine was supplied by a local syndicate, which sold the fakes mainly to cross-border parallel-import traders from mainland China via pharmacies, Fong said.
“The counterfeit medicine was sold for as low as 40 per cent of the retail price of genuine goods [to attract buyers],” he said.
Fong said consumers were told the products were cheaper because they were parallel imports for countries where the standard of living was lower.
The haul included more than 30 fake medicines to treat heart problems, high blood pressure, impotence, joint pain and rheumatic arthritis, according to the Customs and Excise Department.
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