FAKE DIABETES TEST STRIPS TRACED TO CHINA

From the International Herald Tribune:

A global manhunt begun by Johnson & Johnson has traced to China counterfeit versions of an at-home diabetes test used by 10 million Americans to take sensitive measurements of blood sugar levels.

Potentially dangerous copies of the OneTouch Test Strip sold by Johnson & Johnson's LifeScan unit surfaced in U.S. and Canadian pharmacies last year, according to federal court documents unsealed in June but only recently discovered by Bloomberg News.

Court filings disclose, for the first time, that China is the source of about one million phony test strips, which have turned up in at least 35 states and in Canada, Greece, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Fake medicines are a $32 billion global business, said the World Health Organization, and the Food and Drug agency said it had run 54 counterfeit investigations in 2006, almost twice as many as in the year before.

Records seized from the importers show the counterfeit strips were bought from Henry Fu and his company, Halson Pharmaceutical, which, according to its Internet site, is based in Shanghai.

Halson's Web site says that the company distributes and manufactures medical supplies like syringes, and is run by Fu, who, according to a court order, is also known as Su Zhi Yong. Fu was arrested by the Chinese authorities and remains in prison in China, awaiting resolution of his case in the People's Court of Shanghai.