INT: Foreign National Charged for Selling Counterfeit Cancer Drugs

A federal grand jury in Houston returned an indictment today charging an Indian national with selling and shipping tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of counterfeit oncology pharmaceuticals into the United States.

According to court documents, Sanjay Kumar, 43, of Bihar, India, and his co-conspirators allegedly arranged for the sale and shipment of fake, counterfeit versions of oncology pharmaceuticals—including Keytruda—to individuals in the United States. Genuine Keytruda is a cancer immunotherapy that is approved in the United States for 19 different indications, including to treat certain types of melanoma, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, gastric cancer, cervical cancer, and breast cancer. Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, formerly known as Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., has the exclusive right to authorize the manufacture of Keytruda for introduction into interstate commerce.

Kumar was arrested on June 26 in Houston after traveling to the United States to conduct further negotiations aimed at expanding his business selling fake Keytruda in the U.S. market.

Kumar is charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit drugs and four counts of trafficking in counterfeit drugs. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas; Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston; and Special Agent in Charge Charles Grinstead of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations, Kansas City Field Office made the announcement.

HSI and the FDA investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Jeff Pearlman and Bryce Rosenbower of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman for the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Press Release