Prescription drug wholesaler pleads guilty to smuggling counterfeit cancer drugs

The FDA recently reported that the owner of a Turkish drug wholesaler has pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling misbranded and adulterated cancer treatment drugs into the United States. Sabahaddin Akman, owner of the Turkish firm Ozay Pharmaceuticals, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, to smuggling counterfeit cancer drugs including multiple shipments of Altuzan, the Turkish version of bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech).

The drugs did not meet FDA standards and had not been approved for distribution in the United States. The FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations organized an international investigation that led to Akman’s arrest in Puerto Rico in January 2014. The investigation identified Akman and his company as a source of Altuzan.

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