Former chairman and director of VN Pharma JS Company Nguyen Minh Hung who has been sentenced 12 years in prison in the cancer medicine scam said that brother-in-law of Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien works for the company. 

Nguyen Minh Hung at a recent court on VN Pharma case.

Nguyen Minh Hung revealed the information to local online newspaper VietnamNet after being given the sentence at a recent court. Meanwhile, Minister Tien earlier told local media that no one in her family was working for the company.

According to the conclusion of the HCM City People’s Court, VN Pharma falsified technical documents for the import 9,300 boxes of H-Capita 500mg made by Helix Pharmaceuticals Canada. 

Nguyen Minh Hung, the former chairman and director of the firm, has been sentenced 12 years in prison for the violation; meanwhile, seven others in the ring were also sentenced between the two years’ probation and 12 years in prison.

Hung added that Tien’s brother-in-law, Hoang Quoc Dung, is the company’s deputy director in charge of the investment management. He, however, said that Dung does not own any stake in the company.

Being asked about the salary level paid to Dung, Hung said that he could not remember this.

Vietnamese Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien.

Regarding the question whether Dung’s role helped the company to import medicines or win the medicine contracts more easily, Hung said that his company’s medicine bid had conformed to the laws.

Speaking at the government’s meeting on August 30, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said H-Capita 500mg is not the fake medicine but just has low quality as its contaminant content is higher than regulated.

For the information related to the minister’s brother-in-law working for VN Pharma, Tien said Vietnamese laws only stipulate the husband, wife or children of a leader in a state-owned agency or a company are not allowed to work for this agency or company. However, siblings are not listed in the regulation.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam urged an inspection over the licensing of H-Capita 500mg as well as problems related to the case which have drawn public concerns.

In a recent interview with the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that her relatives and herself were not involved in the case of VN Pharma. “The the rumours are totally wrong and a fabrication, aiming to harm my prestige and the ministry. No one in my family works for the company at all. This is a small private company so I even did not know about this until the Drug Administration informed the ministry of its doubts about the company’s cancer medicine origins,” Tien clarified.

Dtinews