t least four hospitals and two pharmacies are believed to be customers of the fake vaccine production ring that has caught national attention recently, a top police official said on Monday.
The hospitals and the pharmacies that allegedly ordered the counterfeit vaccines from suspect couple Hidayat Taufiqurahman and Rita Agustina are all in Jakarta, special economic crimes director at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) Brig. Gen. Agung Setya has said.
Agung refused to give the names of the hospitals and pharmacies as the investigation is still ongoing. However, the fake vaccines have allegedly spread beyond Jakarta. Based on the preliminary investigation, Hidayat and Rita's products have also been distributed in West Java, Banten and Medan in North Sumatra.
"They have a distribution team spreading the vaccines," Agung said as quoted by kompas.com.
The producers of the fake vaccines packaged their product in used vaccine bottles and printed the labels at a printing vendor in Kalideres, West Java, he added.
Police started their investigation following reports over suspicious vaccines for toddlers at several local health clinics (Puskesmas). The investigation then lead to raids of home factories in Bintaro of South Tangerang, East Bekasi and Kemang Regency in West Java between June 16 and June 26.
Hidayat and Rita are among 13 suspects named by Bareskrim during their investigation of the case. The suspects will be charged under the 2009 Health Law with a maximum penalty of 15 years and a Rp 1.5 billion (US$ 111,940) fine. (liz/rin)
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