A 43-year-old man from Bihar, India, was arrested in Houston, Texas, on allegations of selling and shipping counterfeit cancer drugs worth tens of thousands of dollars across the U.S.
Sanjay Kumar was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, Kumar was apprehended in Houston on Friday while negotiating additional deals to expand his illicit business of selling fake oncology pharmaceuticals in the US.
Kumar and his accomplices are accused of orchestrating the sale and shipment of counterfeit versions of Keytruda and other oncology pharmaceuticals to unsuspecting individuals in the U.S.
According to the DOJ, genuine Keytruda is a cancer immunotherapy approved in the U.S. for 19 different indications, including lung cancer, head and neck cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, melanoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma.
According to the DOJ, Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC holds the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute Keytruda in the U.S.
Kumar faces one count of conspiracy to traffic counterfeit drugs and four counts of trafficking counterfeit drugs. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison for each count.
