|
 |
|
| Fake erectile dysfunction drugs flooding Vancouver - Tuesday, June 17, 2008Police and customs agencies are intercepting frequent shipments of counterfeit erectile dysfunction drugs coming into Canada through Vancouver, an RCMP expert attempting to rein in the illegal industry said Monday. read more ...
|
|
| Counterfeit medicines: the pills that kill - Saturday, April 05, 2008Fake pharmaceutical drugs – whether sold directly over the internet or infiltrated into the neighbourhood pharmacy or local hospitals – have become a huge and fast increasing threat. In 2005, 500,000 single doses of fake medicines were discovered across Europe. The following year that number had shot up to 2.5 million. read more ...
|
|
| CSI: Malaria – medics help bust fake drugs ring - Tuesday, February 12, 2008This is a real-life tale with a plot to rival any TV crime drama – a crack medical team has hooked up with Interpol and the Chinese security services to disrupt the deadly trade in counterfeit drugs. Now two Chinese nationals face trial charged with distributing fake versions of the anti-malarial drug Artesunate.
read more ...
|
|
| Fake drugs market in India growing at an alarming rate - Monday, February 11, 2008With sales of fake and spurious drugs continuing unabated in the country, industry body ASSOCHAM said the market is growing at an alarming rate of 20-25 per cent, which has already exceeded the Rs 15,000-crore per annum mark nationally. read more ...
|
|
| Wisconsin man who sold fake drugs to undercover officer jailed - Wednesday, January 30, 2008A 20-year-old Mayville man charged with selling bogus pain medications to an undercover informant will spend time in jail.
read more ...
|
|
| Largest counterfeit drugs conspiracy ever to be encountered in the UK - Tuesday, January 15, 2008Counterfeiters focused on importing fake versions of Merck's hair loss product Propecia (finasteride), as well as the crème de la crème of the counterfeiter's catalogue, Pfizer's Viagra (sildenafil citrate) and Eli Lilly's Cialis (tadalafil). read more ...
|
|
| Bogus pills and pacemakers - Friday, January 11, 2008A big worry these days is devices and pills slapped together offshore and containing don’t - want - to - think - about - it.
read more ...
|
|
| Fake breast enlargement pills can be dangerous - Saturday, December 22, 2007Fake breast enlargement pills tend to contain a number of substances that may be bad for your health and have the potential to cause harmful drug - to - drug or drug - to - herbal - medicine interactions.
read more ...
|
|
| Fake drug zones - Monday, December 17, 2007Drug counterfeiters are taking advantage of free trade zones around the world as a means to mask the true sources of bogus medicines, the New York Times reports.
read more ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Can you answer YES to any of these questions?
Does your doctor prescribe a drug for you that addresses an ongoing medical problem (like high blood pressure, cholesterol or GERD)?
Does your doctor prescribe, or do you receive as an injectable or infused drug for a specialized disease such as cancer, Parkinson's disease or any other drug that is very expensive (even if it is your insurance or Medicare that pays for it)?
Does your doctor prescribe any expensive drug for you in any form of tablet, caplet, gelcap?
Do you take any lifestyle drugs, like Viagra, or sleep drugs like Ambien?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions (or if a friend or loved one might answer yes) then you may have already been a victim of counterfeit drugs, or you may be victimized in the future.
(Extract from Counterfeit Drugs – from Organised Crime to Neighborhood Pharmacies, by patient advocate Trisha Torrey, click here to read more)
Antimalarial drug quality in the most severely malarious parts of Africe – A six country study
35% of all samples tested failed either or both tests, and were substandard. Further, 33% of treatments collected were artemisinin monotherapies, most of which (78%) were manufactured in disobservance of an appeal by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to withdraw these clinically inappropriate medicines from the market. The high persistence of substandard drugs and clinically inappropriate artemisinin monotherapies in the private sector risks patient safety and, through drug resistance, places the future of malaria treatment at risk globally.
Extract from a study by Roger Bate, Amir Attaran, Philip Coticelli and Richard Tren, click here to read more.
How easy is it to import unapproved drugs to sell online and how easy is it for consumers to end up with products that might not be safe?
“Regardless of the legality, federal officials say buying drugs online from other countries is risky because customers may be getting fake, expired or adulterated medications”. Read this in depth article from the San Francisco Chronicle to find out more background to the issue of drug purchasing on the Internet, including tips from the FDA on what to look out for.
|
|
|
|
|
International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization representing industry associations from both developed and developing countries. Member companies of the IFPMA are the major global research-based pharmaceutical and vaccine companies.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the UK governmental agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe. MHRA and Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain RPSGB have published anti-counterfeit guidance for both patients and pharmacists; Counterfeit medicines: Guidance for Pharmacists and Counterfeit medicines: Guidance for Patients.
Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) was established in 2002 by the Security Directors from fourteen major pharmaceutical companies as a not-for-profit corporation based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Working with its members PSI has developed improved systems to identify the extent of the problem and to assist in coordinating international inquiries. PSI maintains a close affiliation with the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) detailed above. The IFPMA Director-General serves as the PSI President.
The Partnership for Safe Medicines comprises a group of organizations and individuals that have policies, procedures, or programmes to protect consumers from counterfeit or contraband medicines. They have a lot of information on the issues of fakes drugs and how to spot genuine products, and issue alerts as new counterfeit and substandard products are identified on the market.
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for protecting the public health in the United States by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is very active in disseminating information about counterfeit products in this industry.
World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations specialized agency for health and was established on 7 April 1948. Its objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment of the highest possible level of health for all people around the globe. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. As such, it plays a key role in tackling the issues of counterfeit and substandard pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click here for counterfeit news and information relating to specific brands in the pharmaceutical sector.
|
|
|
|
|
|