Chinese and American police have jointly uncovered a major counterfeit drugs ring, a Chinese official said yesterday at a news briefing. The ring spanned 11 countries and involved millions of dollars worth of bogus drugs. Eleven Chinese and one American were arrested.

A total of 440,000 counterfeit drugs, valued at more than 40 million yuan (US$4.9 million), were seized between August 28 and September 2 as a result of joint efforts by Chinese and US police, said Gao Feng, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security.

The fake drugs included the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, as well as the cholesterol drug Lipitor, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Li Wenhui and American Richard Cowley, the suspected ringleaders, were arrested in north China's Tianjin on August 26, and the US State of Washington on September 2 respectively.

Li began selling bogus drugs online in March last year under the false names Wang Daijun and David Wang. He soon made contact with Cowley through the Internet, and became the American's main supplier, mailing him the drugs and helping him with online sales to buyers in countries such as the US, the UK and Switzerland.

Chinese police said the investigation began in September 2004 when Pfizer, a leading US-based pharmaceutical company, tipped them off that Li was trading fake Viagra in the US and the UK.

How Pfizer discovered the plot was not explained.

"In terms of the number of arrests and seizures, I believe this is probably one of our most significant investigations involving counterfeit pharmaceuticals," Andy Yu, a Beijing-based customs attaché with the US Department of Homeland Security, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

The two police forces also discovered 14 drug manufacturing machines and 260 kilograms of semi-finished fakes and raw materials, which would have produced another 4 million bogus pills.

This is the second successful joint investigation by China and the US in combating intellectual property rights violations.

The first collaboration was in July last year, when they jointly cracked a counterfeit DVD scheme, which involved 210,000 pirated discs worth about US$31,000. Six people were arrested, including two Americans.

(China Daily September 9, 2005)