Egyptian middleman bought fake Avastin from Turkey

Fake versions of the multibillion-dollar cancer drug Avastin were purchased in Turkey before being traded by middlemen across the Middle East and Europe to the United States, an Egyptian businessman involved said on Tuesday.

Milad Kamal Ayad, who works on commission for Egyptian firm SAWA, told Reuters he sourced 167 packets of Avastin from Turkey, via a Syrian businessman also based in Egypt, for Swiss-based Hadicon AG.

The drug, found to be counterfeit, eventually reached clinics in California, Texas and Illinois. It contained no life extending medicine or any other biotech drug, Roche said on Monday, but instead contained salt, starch and a variety of chemicals.

The case involving Roche’s top-selling cancer treatments has underscored how even expensive injectable medicines, not just pills like Viagra and Lipitor, are at risk from criminal counterfeiters.

It also shows how difficult it is to trace the source of such counterfeits as they pass from one supplier to another.

“Via SAWA, I bought these items from a Syrian. Of course, I didn’t know they were counterfeit copies,” Ayad said, speaking in a meeting at the Reuters bureau in Cairo where he described the deal.

He said that a sample packet of the drug he was shown by the Syrian appeared to be original.

Phony Avastin has been found in the region previously. Roche said on Friday that fake versions of Avastin were discovered in Syria in 2009.

In the latest case, the U.S. distributor, known as Montana Healthcare Solutions, listed Avastin along with its Turkish name Altuzan on an order form obtained by Reuters.

Zug-based Hadicon said it had dealt with SAWA to source the drug. The Swiss firm provided Reuters an address in Cairo, although no company by SAWA’s name was based there. It also supplied a mobile number without a name. The phone belonged to Ayad.

Ayad, who said SAWA was owned and run by another Egyptian businessman now abroad, said he sourced the drug for Hadicon via Syrian businessman Mohamed Fakkas el-Beid, who he said is based in the Egyptian Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Ayad provided a copy of the Syrian’s national identification card.