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Counterfeit medicines can result in treatment failure - Friday, January 08, 2010
According to the WHO, counterfeit medicines are found everywhere in the world. They range from random mixtures of harmful toxic substances to inactive, ineffective preparations.
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Police accuse man of operating counterfeit prescription drug business from his car - Sunday, December 27, 2009
Authorities say a Portland man on federal probation has been operating a counterfeit prescription drug business out of his vehicle, sending others to fill fraudulent prescriptions at metro-area pharmacies, then reselling the pills for profit.
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Say no to counterfeit drugs - Friday, December 18, 2009
The Senate this week wisely rejected an amendment to health reform legislation, which would have exposed U.S. patients to potentially counterfeit drugs from abroad.
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Officials warn of fake email about H1N1 flu - Thursday, December 03, 2009
State and federal officials are warning people not to open a fraudulent e-mail that claims to be from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and urges creation of a "personal H1N1 vaccination profile."
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Counterfeit drugs and internet smarts - Monday, November 23, 2009
More public education would help stem the problem of fake pharmaceuticals—restricting Internet trade would not.
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U.S. part of global crackdown on counterfeit drugs - Friday, November 20, 2009
In highly orchestrated raids around the world this week, Interpol officers in Europe, drug agents in the United States and task forces from Sweden to Singapore hunted down counterfeit prescription drugs in an effort to stem a rapidly growing criminal business preying on financially pressed consumers looking for bargains.
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Fake medicines seized as websites are shut down - Friday, November 20, 2009
The public are being warned of the dangers of buying unlicensed medicines on the internet. The alert comes as hundreds of websites are being shut down for selling fake or illicit drugs around the world.
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The Sun joins undercover police as sales of dangerous counterfeit medicines soar - Friday, November 20, 2009
There is big money being made in counterfeit medicines, which are sold mainly on the internet. The market is believed to be worth around £45 million a year.
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Amid H1N1 swine flu symtoms fears, criminals sell fake drugs and make millions - Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A British security firm named Sophos added its voice on November 16th to those of health officials decrying the purchase of antiviral drugs off the internet for the treatment of H1N1 symptoms, most or all of which are fake.

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Bogus online drug sales on the riseWeb security firm Sophos reported Monday that some online crimina - Monday, November 16, 2009
Web security firm Sophos reported Monday that some online criminals are attempting to sell fake flu drug doses to unsuspecting customers in hopes of cashing in on public fears sparked by the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
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Health Canada warns people not to buy unauthorized products to fight H1N1 - Thursday, November 05, 2009

OTTAWA — As flu activity picks up across the country, federal authorities are warning Canadians not to buy unauthorized products from the Internet or other sources that claim to fight the H1N1 virus.

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Ad warning of fake drugs reaches small screen - Wednesday, November 04, 2009
A notorious advert warning of the dangers of buying medicines from unregulated websites - which shows a man taking a pill and regurgitating a rat - has had its first airing on terrestrial television in the UK.
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Hip-hop star leads campaign against fake drugs - Sunday, November 01, 2009

As part of activities to mark his 10th anniversary as an artiste, hip-hop star, Tuface Idibia has entered into partnership with Love Idoko’s Motivation Magazine, to stage a campaign against fake drugs in Benue State.

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Attorney General warns consumers about fake H1N1 products - Thursday, October 29, 2009
Arizona’s Attorney General issued a warning for consumers on Thursday, cautioning everyone to be wary of products sold online that claim to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure the H1N1 flu virus.
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Growing threat of substandard and counterfeit medicines addressed by USAID-USP cooperative agreement - Monday, October 26, 2009
With substandard and counterfeit versions of medicines intended to treat life-threatening diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis posing a growing threat throughout
the developing world, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)and the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention will expand their joint efforts to combat this menace by launching a new program over the next five years.
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EU firms pilot Swedish scheme to stop fake drugs - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
European drugmakers said on Tuesday they were piloting an anti-counterfeit coding system in Sweden in a bid to end the risk of fake medicines entering the supply chain.
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Fake H1N1 drugs being sold on the Internet - Monday, October 19, 2009
Health experts say people are turning to Web sites for drugs to treat H1N1 and that could be potentially dangerous.
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FDA warns of unapproved and illegal H1N1 drug products purchased over the Internet - Thursday, October 15, 2009
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today warned consumers to use extreme care when purchasing any products over the Internet that claim to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure the H1N1 influenza virus. The warning comes after the FDA recently purchased and analyzed several products represented online as Tamiflu (oseltamivir), which may pose risks to patients.
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NBC Nightly news story about counterfeit swine flu vaccine - Thursday, October 15, 2009
Online scams target swine flu fears.
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How to stop the counterfeit medicine drugs trade - Thursday, October 08, 2009
The next time you're tempted to buy Viagra, Lipitor or some other medication online, ponder this: there's a high likelihood that what you buy will be fake
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EU anti-counterfeiting proposal "cannot ignore" internet - Monday, October 05, 2009
The European Commission’s proposed directive to clamp down on counterfeit medicines “cannot ignore” the reality that a “huge percentage” of counterfeits are channelled through the internet, says the new rapporteur for the proposal in Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI).
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The real danger of counterfeit medicines
Purchasing prescription-only medicines without a prescription from unregulated sources has a number of risks. Buying prescription-only medicine without having seen a healthcare professional means you may not have a proper diagnosis of your problem. Click here for Pfizer's 'real danger' website, giving the lowdown on the dangers posed by counterfeit drugs and how to avoid them.

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.

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Minimize

The World Health Organization now estimates that about 30% of all prescription drugs on the market are counterfeit.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5796287&page=1 

Fake Pharmaceuticals: Increase In Counterfeit Anti-Malarial Drugs Prompts Call For Crackdown And Better Detection. ScienceDaily (Jun. 20, 2006) — A worsening epidemic of sophisticated anti-malarial drug counterfeiting in southeast Asia and Africa is increasing the likelihood of drug-resistant parasites, yielding false-positive results on screening tests and risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of malaria patients, mostly children, researchers say.
- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060619005440.htm

It is estimated that more than 10% of the global medicines market is accounted for by counterfeit drugs. They are present in all regions but the problem is especially big in developing countries. 25% of the medicines consumed in those countries are believed to be counterfeit, and in some countries, the figure is thought to be as high as 50%.
-
(World Health Organization)

The Global Threat of Counterfeit Drugs: Why Industry and Governments Must Communicate the Dangers
- March 14, 2005 (Public Library of Science) 

  
Organizations Minimize

Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make health care more affordable, preventive and patient-centered. CMPI also provides the public, policymakers and the media with a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness.

Click here to view CMPI reports on counterfeiting. Click here to read the CMPI testimony Counterfeit Drugs and China.

Drug Information DrugWatch.com is a comprehensive website featuring extensive information about thousands of different medications and drugs currently on the market or previously available worldwide. DrugWatch.com includes up-to-date information about prescription and over-the-counter medications and includes details about associated drug side effects to aid in the protection of patients and consumers.

European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) is an independent, cross-sector patient safety Alliance campaigning for the exclusion of counterfeit and substandard medicines from the supply chain. Raising public awareness of the issues surrounding counterfeit medicines forms a key part of the activities of the EAASM.

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.

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.

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.

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.

SecuringPharma.com offers pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting news. SecuringPharma.com is a free-to-access information service that covers the issues surrounding counterfeit medicines and supply chain security in the pharmaceutical industry.Their aim is to provide practical advice and market intelligence to help drugmakers keep up-to-date with developments in the field and define their own strategies to safeguard the supply chain, from raw materials right through to the patient.

 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.
Company News and Links Minimize

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a drug maker that has taken steps to protect its drugs from being counterfeited. Click here to read an article from 2007 detailing AstraZeneca's anti-counterfeiting measures.

Bayer HealthCare

Counterfeit drug information from Bayer HealthCare - Drug counterfeiting has developed into a serious, global problem over the last few years. The problem of counterfeits has been growing even in countries with strict regulations on the manufacture and sale of drugs.Click here to access more information directly from Bayer HealthCare, including information about counterfeit drugs in other countries.

Eli Lilly

Eli Lilly is the maker of well-known brands such as Cialis, Evista and Zyprexa, all of which have been counterfeited. See our Pharmaceutical sector for more information concerning the counterfeiting of these brands.

GlaxoSmithKlein

GSK produces medicines that treat six major disease areas: asthma, virus control, infections, mental health, diabetes and digestive conditions. There have recently (2010) been concerns about counterfeit versions of the GSK wieght-loss drug Alli. Click here to read about GSK's position on counterfeiting of healthcare products.

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson produces a wide range of healthcare products ranging from consumer items such as skin creams and lotions to analgesics, medical devices and endoscopic surgery products, to name but a few. The company has faced significant problems with counterfeiting of is skincare products, click here to read more.

Pfizer

Pfizer is the drug maker behind the famous Viagra brand. There has been much publicity about counterfeit Viagra, puchased both online and of the streets (see our Thailand Travel Advisory). Click here to for links to articles on counterfeit Viagra. Click here for a link to information from Pfizer about counterfeit drugs. In early 2009 Pfizer launched its real danger campaign which firstly involved a cinema advertisement that became known as the recently 'regurgitated rat', anti-counterfeiting campaign. In November 2009, Pfizer followed up with a televsion ad that was equally as hard-hitting in highlighting the intrinsic dangers involved in purchasing prescription drugs from unregulated sources.

Ad watchdog may look at dead rat ad once again - Click here to read more.

Roche

Pharmaceuticals produced by Roche include those used to treat viral infections, metabolic, central nervous system disorders and inflammatory diseases. The anti-viral vaccine Tamiflu is among one of the company's best known brands and it is also one that has been targeted by the counterfeiters. Click here for links to articles about counterfeit Tamiflu.

 

 

 
  
Older news items Minimize
IBM study reveals drug companies struggle with counterfeiting - Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Counterfeiting is one of the biggest risks facing the pharmaceutical industry today. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 10 percent of the worldwide drug supply is counterfeit.
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WHO to revive talks on fake drugs - Friday, September 04, 2009
Months after the member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) failed to arrive at a consensus over the introduction of a new definition for “counterfeit medicines”, the multilateral agency has once again revived talks on the counterfeit issue.
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Report: Global aAnti-counterfeit market for food and pharmaceuticals worth US$79.3 billion by 2014 - Wednesday, September 02, 2009
According to a new market research report, 'Global Anti Counterfeit market for Food and Pharmaceuticals (2009-2014)', published by MarketsandMarkets, the global anti counterfeit market for food and pharmaceuticals market is expected to be worth US$79.3 billion by 2014, with an estimated CAGR of 8.6% from 2009 to 2014.
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Counterfeit culture - it's not just Gucci bags and Rolex watches anymore - Sunday, August 30, 2009
If you see vanilla extract at a price that’s too good to be true, it just may be a fake. And a dangerous fake, according to the FDA. Vanilla extracts containing coumarin, a substance used in rat poison, are still made in Mexico and Latin America.
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Counterfeit drug menace rages on in Asia - Friday, August 28, 2009
In the last many years, drug counterfeiting has been growing in Southeast Asian region, besides India and China. WHO estimates that as many as 30 percent of medicines sold in some regions of Southeast Asia are counterfeit.
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Fraudulent H1N1 influenza products - Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The FDA is warning consumers about fraudulent swine flu (H1N1) products that are mainly being sold on the Internet.

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No country immune to menace of counterfeit medicines - Thursday, April 23, 2009
Counterfeit drugs are not readily available in the UAE, they still exist since dealing in fake medicines can be lucrative, say experts.
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Patients in US to get counterfeit warning with each prescription - Wednesday, April 01, 2009

New guidance to patients to raise public awareness of fake medicine and its dangers has been launched by the RPSGB and MHRA.

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Counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs distributed - Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Dallas man was convicted Monday of conspiring to distribute counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and trafficking in pharmaceuticals bearing false labeling and counterfeit trademarks.
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Americas Watchdogs warns the world about Chinese counterfeit pharmaceuticals & cigarettes - Monday, March 16, 2009
Americas Watchdogs' Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants is the most quoted group in the world on product counterfeiting and piracy. The group is predicting that in 2009 global counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals will grow to $150 billion US dollars worldwide & China alone, will produce over 200,000,000,000 counterfeit cigarettes.
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Fake Internet drugs risk lives and fund terrorism - Tuesday, January 27, 2009
In one scheme, Americans buying fake Viagra on the internet were actually helping to fund Middle East terrorism, unknowingly jeopardising the lives of men and women serving in their own armed forces.
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Health fears grow as fake drugs flood into Britain - Sunday, January 04, 2009
Counterfeiting gangs based in China are producing sophisticated copies of the world's bestselling pharmaceuticals. In 2008 an estimated 8m of these potentially deadly pills found their way to NHS patients. The health of millions of people is at risk.
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New Jersey man caught with 600,000 fake condoms - Sunday, November 23, 2008
A man allegedly caught with 600,000 counterfeit condoms during a sting operation by state police investigators in Carteret in February is being sought by authorities.
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Israel joins world effort to halt counterfeit drug trade - Sunday, November 16, 2008

Purchasing prescription medications via the Internet, newspaper advertisements or from any source other than licensed pharmacies is dangerous, according to the Health Ministry, which together with the Israel Police has seized thousands of pills suspected of being counterfeit.

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Fake erectile dysfunction drugs flooding Vancouver - Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Police 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.
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