Woman, 60, gets 3-year jail for selling fake cancer drugs

A 60-year-old woman, who ran a workshop with her husband and son producing fake anti-cancer drugs and sold them online, has been sentenced to three years in jail and fined 300,000 yuan (US$45,338), the Jing'an District People's Court said yesterday.

She asked her son to join her in April this year to cope with the demand. The woman, surnamed Zhou, sold her products for more than 180,000 yuan between December last year and July 2017.

A Shanghai buyer who realized the capsules were fake informed the police and Zhou and her son were apprehended by officers at their home in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on July 6. Fake drugs, other ingredients and tools were seized at the scene.

Zhou pleaded guilty and returned 3,000 yuan of her illicit earnings to police.

Her son was given a nine-month jail term by the court with a one-year-reprieve and a 100,000-yuan fine, while her husband will be sentenced in a separate case, the court said.

Zhou told police her husband was a cancer patient who began taking AZD9291 last year. She came up with the idea of making money by producing the medicine herself and selling it online. She bought the powder from an online store and mixed it with lactose and starch to make the capsules. She charged 1,000 yuan to 1,700 yuan for a bottle.

Most of those who bought the medicine said it didn't work and a few said family members felt uncomfortable after taking it.