RICHMOND, BC, Nov. 25, 2015 /CNW/ - The Board of Directors of Canagen Pharmaceuticals Inc. (“the Company”) is pleased to announce that the initial charges (of handling stolen goods), filed in 2001 by the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on behalf of the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), against the President & CEO of the Company, Mr. Mahmoud S. Aziz, were formally dropped by the CPS, and Mr. Aziz has been completely exonerated.
After unsuccessfully trying to prove his innocence through the courts in Canada (due to jurisdictional issues) Mr. Aziz returned to the UK and retained legal counsel there and through the courts in the UK was successful in proving his innocence.
On November 6, 2014, in a hearing before the Central Criminal Court, the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) “offered no evidence” against Mr. Aziz and the Court accordingly immediately directed that verdicts of not guilty be entered and that all charges be dropped.
While in the process of initiating a $40 million civil suit against the CPS and MHRA for wrongful detainment and charges, Mr. Aziz received a significant out-of-court settlement from the CPS, which brings final closure to this case.
As background, in late 2007 the Company was offered a large stocklot of Novartis pharmaceuticals from a UK Government MHRA licensed and registered pharmaceuticals company in England, which was purportedly originally intended for export to the Middle East.
While in the United Kingdom, to conduct further due diligence, inspection and negotiations of these pharmaceutical products, on behalf of our company, in a UK Government licensed and registered pharmaceuticals warehouse, Mr. Aziz was dubiously charged (together with the owner of the pharmaceuticals company and warehouse) with handling stolen goods.
Unbeknownst to Mr. Aziz and the Company, a truck carrying those pharmaceuticals had been stolen from Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Switzerland, by an unidentified party in 2004, almost four years prior to the pharmaceuticals stocklot being offered to our Company by AHZ Pharmaceuticals Limited. Charges were subsequently laid in the UK by the CPS, in 2011, without Mr. Aziz’s knowledge and without any notification or Summons being issued to him by the CPS, thereby violating his due process.
Sina Pirooz, Director of the Company stated, “Mr. Aziz is a person of strong integrity and deep moral and ethical convictions and has steadfastly maintained his innocence throughout this case; so we are truly pleased that he has finally been vindicated and exonerated and he is now able to continue to lead and direct the Company’s global development and growth.”
According to US consumer advocacy group, America’s Watchdog, drug theft by organized crime costs the global pharmaceuticals industry up to US$ 1 billion a year. Known technically as “diversion”, the practice, according to the advocacy group, is “very common” and a “big problem” for the global pharmaceuticals industry.
Established in 2001, Canagen Pharmaceuticals inc. is an established and innovative, research-based Canadian pharmaceuticals company actively engaged in the manufacture of finished dosage generic pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and OTC products and in the research, development and commercialization of novel drugs covering the cardiovascular, oncology, dementia and anti-viral therapeutic areas. The Company owns and operates six certified GMP pharmaceuticals factories in Canada, China, India and Russia.
On behalf of the Board of Directors:
CANAGEN PHARMACEUTICALS INC.
“Sina Pirooz”
Sina Pirooz
Director
SOURCE Canagen Pharmaceuticals Inc.
