Defendants in one of the biggest alleged pharmaceutical counterfeiting rings in UK legal history are to face trial next week. Nine men will appear at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court on Monday to face charges of involvement in an international drug counterfeiting operation.

The case dates back to 2003 and 2004, when allegedly counterfeit batches of Pfizer’s Viagra and Eli Lilly’s Cialis, drugs used to treat impotence, were discovered in the British supply chain. This triggered an investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The accused are Gary Haywood, 58, from Alicante, Spain; Georgio Patino, 46, a physician from Guadalajara, Mexico; Nayna Ashish Halai, 31, a pharmacist from Elstree, Hertfordshire; Ashwin Patel, 24, a university graduate from Kensal Rise, West London; Alpesh Patel, 29, a pharmaceutical sales representative from Kingsbury, West London; Zahid Mirza, 46, a businessman from Ilford, Essex; Ketan Kishore Mehta, 54, of Grove Park, southeast London; Rajendka Shah, 47, a pharmacist from St Albans, Hertfordshire; and Ashish Halai, 32, a pharmacist from Elstree, Hertfordshire.

The nine men are facing a number of charges under the Medicines Act 1968, including conspiracy to distribute fake trademarked medical products. The trial is expected to last for eight weeks. The men have denied the charges.

Anyone convicted under the Medicines Act can be sent to prison and face unlimited fines.

The global trade in counterfeit medicines is growing rapidly. A report from America’s Centre for Medicines in the Public Interest claimed sales of counterfeit drugs could reach $75 billion (£38.3 billion) by 2010, a 92 per cent increase from 2005.

The World Health Organisation has estimated that about 8 to 10 per cent of medicines available globally are counterfeits.

Drug forgery is a particularly big problem in the developing world. In Nigeria more than 60 per cent of drugs are thought to be counterfeit. In the European Union, customs officers seized more than half a million packets of fake medicines in 148 separate raids in 2005.

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