Sildenafil is a prescription drug that can be fatal when added to health supplements without a scientific formulation. A few days ago, the Saihan District Procuratorate of Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, combined with a number of related cases, urged relevant departments to perform their duties in accordance with the law by formulating and issuing pre-trial procuratorial suggestions for administrative public interest litigation, and achieved remarkable results.
In March 2023, Li spent 50 yuan to buy 5 health care products at Chen's place. After taking it, Li had an adverse reaction and reported the case to the public security organ.
After filing and investigating, the public security organs found that since September 2020, Chen had purchased several kinds of *** products through abnormal channels and sold them externally, and he had neither applied for a food business license nor had the conditions to sell health food. The public security organs seized a total of 282 bottles of 23 kinds of health products in Chen's place, and these health products were all detected to contain sildenafil.
Improper consumption of sildenafil may cause harm to the digestive system, blood and lymphatic system, nervous system, etc. The addition of sildenafil to health food not only violates the law, but also has great potential safety hazards, threatening the health and life safety of the user.
After the case was transferred to the Saihan District Procuratorate for review and prosecution, the procuratorate believed that when Chen purchased health food, he knew that the health care products involved in the case were purchased through informal channels, but still sold them, and his behavior led to a large number of health care products containing sildenafil entering the market, causing damage to the lives and safety of many unspecified consumers, causing damage to the public interest, and Chen should bear the corresponding civil tort liability in addition to criminal liability.
On June 29, 2023, the Saihan District Procuratorate filed a civil public interest lawsuit attached to the criminal case with the court. After trial, the court sentenced the defendant Chen to six months in prison, suspended for one year, and fined 20,000 yuan for the crime of selling toxic and harmful food. At the same time, the court also sentenced Chen to bear ten times the punitive damages for public welfare damages, and publicly apologized for the sale of toxic and harmful food at or above the provincial level.
Chen's case of selling toxic and harmful food is not an isolated case. From March to November 2023, the Saihan District Procuratorate handled a total of 5 cases of illegally adding sildenafil to health products. In handling the case, the prosecutor of the public interest litigation department of the court found that such cases have two characteristics: first, most of the sales locations are family planning supply stores within the districts, counties and townships, and the locations are relatively hidden;Second, there are no formal purchase channels, and health care products are sold by unknown persons, or purchased from informal channels such as unknown and informal sales stores, and the purchasers have not checked the supplier's business license and food factory inspection certificate or other qualification certificates.
In response to the above problems, a few days ago, the Saihan District Procuratorate issued a pre-trial procuratorial recommendation for administrative public interest litigation to the market supervision department, urging it to establish a supervision and inspection system covering the whole process of food production, circulation and consumption, as well as a hidden danger investigation and management mechanism, so as to rectify the problem of illegal sales of health care products in the jurisdiction.
After receiving the procuratorial suggestion, the relevant departments immediately took action to carry out special inspections on the sales points of pharmacies and family planning supplies stores in the jurisdiction, and thoroughly investigated the relatively hidden sales points in the suburban junction and in the alleys of the city, and filed a case for investigation and punishment of the "three nos" health care products and other illegal products found in the jurisdiction, effectively purifying the sales environment of health food in the jurisdiction.