Law enforcement agencies exposed and halted the activities of an organized group that had established the large-scale illegal production and nationwide distribution in Ukraine of a counterfeit weight-loss medicine called "Biopatid." This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General, according to UNN.
Details
The drug contained the active substance tirzepatide and was sold without the relevant permits, state registration, or proper certification.
Law enforcement officers notified 27 participants in the criminal scheme that they were suspected of producing, transporting, sending, and storing knowingly counterfeit medicines for the purpose of sale. These crimes are provided for under Part 3 of Article 28 and Part 2 of Article 321-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The drug was shipped to customers without observing the required temperature conditions. The cost of the main materials was approximately USD 17, while the finished product was sold for up to USD 1,200. Preliminary estimates indicate that, since the beginning of this year, products worth a total of more than USD 5 million had been manufactured
Investigative actions were carried out in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv. During the searches, counterfeit medicine and raw materials for its production, clandestine laboratory equipment, packaging materials and finished printed products, documents and draft records, mobile phones and computer equipment, as well as cash in various currencies totaling nearly UAH 15 million, expensive vehicles, and other property were seized.
Previously
Law enforcement officers are investigating the illegal production and sale of the counterfeit weight-loss drug Biopatid. More than 250 searches are underway in various regions.