Pharmaceutical products trader convicted of illegally exporting pharmaceutical products and providing false information

     A pharmaceutical products trader was convicted and fined $200,000 today (February 10) at Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts for exporting pharmaceutical products not under and in accordance with an export licence and providing false information when applying for the licence, in contravention of the Import and Export Ordinance (IEO).

     Hong Kong Customs earlier conducted a post-shipment inspection and the trader was found to be suspected of exporting a consignment of 1 000 bottles of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, with a value of about $1.28 million, to the Mainland of China not under and in accordance with an export licence. Follow-up investigations also revealed that the trader had provided false information on the departure of goods when applying for the export licence.

     Under the IEO, any person who imports or exports pharmaceutical products (including vaccines) without a valid licence, or furnishes false or misleading material particulars in a licence application, commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for two years.

     Members of the public may report any suspected violation of the IEO to Customs' 24-hour hotline at 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).