EIGHT suspects involved in producing and selling counterfeit drugs have been sentenced to prison by the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.

According to the court, the suspects registered several companies in Hong Kong and Shenzhen between September 2014 and March 2016. They smuggled medicines into the Chinese mainland from abroad and sold them to cancer patients by offering a 10-percent kickback to doctors in big hospitals nationwide to help them sell the medicine.

One of the suspects, Liang Deyi, said they had traveled extensively to Guangxi, Henan, Hainan and other provinces and visited local top-grade hospitals to sell the medicine.

The suspects also produced counterfeit drugs themselves by putting fructose, starch and powder into empty capsules, and selling them for up to 2,500 yuan (US$385) per gram to cancer patients.

The Shenzhen market supervision bureau launched an investigation into the case after it received a report March 5, 2016. The prices of the counterfeit drugs sold by the gang ranged between a few hundred yuan and 210,000 yuan per unit.

The smuggled drugs were also deemed as counterfeit drugs because the importation of these drugs hadn’t been approved by the government.

According to the court, the total value of the drugs sold by the gang had reached 5.93 million yuan. The eight suspects were sentenced to jail terms ranging from three to 13 years.

Residents are advised to buy medicine through legal vendors and be wary of online drug sellers.

Prescription drugs sold in the United States always require prescriptions issued by doctors, so those who claim that they can get American prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription are likely scammers, according to the report.

(Zhang Yang)