Vietnamese pharma firm director held over 1.2mn fake effervescent tablets

The Hanoi Department of Public Security said on Monday that it had prosecuted four suspects, including Vinh, in connection with the case on allegations of manufacturing and trading counterfeit food products.

Vinh has been placed in temporary detention for the investigation into the large-scale counterfeiting case, which came to light after authorities detected signs that Vintechpharm was manufacturing and trading functional food products that did not match their registered declarations.

After a period of surveillance, a joint inspection team comprising local police and other competent agencies searched the company's production facility in Hanoi on August 17.

Inspectors found that information in the company's product declarations did not match the product labels and that its product registration dossiers were incomplete.

The team seized and sealed more than 1.2 million effervescent tablets at the facility and three establishments and pharmacies that were the company's clients.

Four samples of the effervescent tablets produced by the company were subsequently analyzed by testing agencies.

The samples were found to contain sodium benzoate at concentrations ranging from 4.18 percent to 6.78 percent, while the permitted level is no more than 0.2 percent, meaning the preservative content was 20 to 33 times higher than allowed, investigators said.

Some ingredients indicated on the labels, including vitamins B1, B3 and B6 and other active ingredients, were not detected in the samples.

Meanwhile, the products were advertised as helping boost immunity, support detoxification and cool the liver, with children also listed among the intended users.

Sold under the brands Multivitamin Pro, Actiso Rau Ngo (corn silk) - Rau Ma (pennywort) and Actiso Pro, the fake products cost about VND10,000 (US$0.38) per tube to produce but were sold for VND45,000-60,000 ($1.70-2.30) each.

They were distributed through pharmacies and e-commerce platforms including TikTok Shop and Shopee.

Hanoi police are continuing to investigate the case and clarify the roles of other individuals and organizations involved.

Police have asked individuals and organizations that purchased or used the above-mentioned products supplied by Vintechpharm to contact the department to provide information for the investigation.