Sabahhadin Akman, the owner of Turkish firm Ozay Pharmaceuticals, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $150,000 (€133,000) for his part in the smuggling of counterfeit drugs into the US.
Akman admitted to selling counterfeit Altuzan (bevacizumab) - the Turkish version of Roche’s blockbuster oncology drug Avastin – which entered the US supply chain in 2012.
While Avastin is the approved brand of bevacizumab in the US, and thus even legitimate Altuzan is illegal, vials seized from US physicians and customers by the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) in 2012 found no active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) present.
The sentencing follows that of Akman’s business partner and alleged ‘Foreign Trade Director’ of a Turkish drug wholesaler, Ozkan Semizoglu, who recently received 27 months for smuggling the counterfeit and misbranded products.
“The serious public health impact of counterfeit cancer medications in the supply chain compelled the FDA to mobilize resources throughout the country to track down the US wholesalers and medical practices that had purchased this illegal product,” said Philip Walskey, acting director of OCI.