All Posts Tagged With: "fake pills"
Thousands of Fake Pills Removed from UK Pharmacies
Thirty thousand packs of counterfeit life-saving drugs may have been consumed by National Health Service (NHS) patients, including drugs used to treat prostate cancer, strokes, heart conditions and schizophrenia.
When: June 2007
Where: The United Kingdom
How: According to reports by the BBC, reputable UK wholesalers were “duped by sophisticated counterfeits.”
Who: MHRA; National Health Service; Orient Pacific International; Pfizer
Additional details
In June 2007, the Medicines Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued four Class One emergency recalls on the following life saving medicines:
- Casodex – used to treat prostate cancer
- Plavix – used to treat strokes and heart conditions
- Zyprexa – used to treat schizophrenia
A UK wholesaler spotted discrepancies in the packaging of drugs bought in Europe. A former investigator told the BBC that drugs from other parts of Europe can be purchased at lower prices, and that the UK can import the drugs from the EU under an arrangement known as a parallel trade—after which point the drugs are repackaged with English language packaging. The investigator said that the three drugs “would have pretended to be medicines that were destined for other European markets, in the case of Plavix, they would be in a French language pack.”
The counterfeit packaging wasn’t found until the imports were already in the supply chain, distributed to chemists, doctors and hospitals, and dispensed to patients, according to the BBC.
The head of enforcement at the MHRA said they had seized 40,000 of the estimated 70,000 packs of counterfeit drugs, but issued the recall because 30,000 packs were unaccounted for. The 30,000 missing packs are assumed to have been consumed by patients. It is unknown which patients consumed the counterfeit drugs, and thus it is unknown how many patients were made ill or died as a result of ingesting the counterfeits.
While there is no way to determine which patients received which drugs, the same batch numbers from the drugs were traced to the man at the center of an international fake drugs ring, Kevin Xu, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and owner of Orient Pacific International.
In August 2007, Xu was indicted for distributing counterfeit and misbranded pharmaceuticals in the United States via the internet, at which time he also faced allegations for introducing counterfeit drugs into the UK supply chain. Xu was convicted and sentenced to six and a half years in prison in January 2009.
Read more about how thousands of fake pills for very serious conditions made it into the UK supply.
China promises to investigate alleged fake pills sold to Britain
BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) — China’s drug watchdog promised to investigate how alleged counterfeit pills, which were made in China, ended up being used by the British National Health Service (NHS).
“We will conduct relevant investigations and will surely punish companies or individuals who manufacture fake pharmaceuticals for export”, Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman with State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said on Wednesday.
“If we find any clues of illegal medicine production for export, we will track them down,” the spokeswoman told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.
A London-based newspaper, The Guardian, said on its website Jan. 4 that “counterfeiting gangs based in China” produced some eight million fake pills which went to NHS patients last year.
Chinese police authorities recently traveled to London to discuss the growing problem, The Guardian said.
The information, however, cannot be confirmed at this time.
Yan reiterated China’s resolution to crack-down on importing or exporting fake medicines. She emphasized that the government adopted international principles and practices to regulate the issue.
According to Chinese laws, medicine exporters should acquire government-issued certificates to run their business. Exported pills should be accompanied by permission papers for sales in accordance with requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Read the rest of this article on fake pills in Britain.
Belgian Customs Seize Record Haul of Fake Pills from India
They were sent in three shipments by a company based in Mumbai and were bound for two companies in a western African country.
The biggest seizure ever of counterfeit medical pills in Europe occurred in Belgium on Oct. 2. Customs authorities at the Brussels airport have seized over two million counterfeit medical pills from India which were bound for Africa.
Blister packs of the fake medications — copies of Tramal, a strong analgesic made by German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal, and Swiss-based Roche’s antimalarial treatment Fansidar — were discovered in large bags, the customs service said.
They were sent in three shipments by a company based in Mumbai and were bound for two companies in a western African country.
“To our knowledge, this is the biggest seizure of counterfeit medicine ever carried out in Europe,” Lieven Muylaert, spokesman for the Customs and Excise department said, adding that he could not immediately evaluate the cargo’s worth on the open market.
Customs officers’ suspicions were aroused first because the pills were not transported in boxes, and then by spelling mistakes on the packaging.
According to World Health Organization estimates, fake medicines represent 10% of the global pharmaceutical industry at some 45 billion euros (62 billion euros) and have started to penetrate drug markets in the developed world.
The amount of counterfeit medical drugs intercepted at EU borders rose 51% last year after soaring by 400% in 2006.
In France such seizures, mainly of Viagra from India and on its way to Africa or Latin America, shot up be 31% last year.
Read more about this seizure of fake pills in Belgian.
Making a killing with fake pills
Most counterfeits damage only the manufacturers whose designs are being copied but fake pharmaceuticals can kill
Appearances can be deceiving. Just because something looks like an original Picasso, a Gucci handbag or any other sought-after product, is not sufficient reason to buy it without checking on its authenticity.
Counterfeiters now have a new target – pharmaceuticals – and it is innocent people who are suffering, many of whom have died as a result.
Usually, but not always, the price is a good indicator of whether an item is real or fake.
Fakes in the supply chain
Selling to individual purchasers on line is not as profitable as selling in bulk and the counterfeiters have been quick to exploit this market, particularly in the developing world.
By finding ways of introducing fake pills into the supply chain they can – quite literally – make a killing.
Read the rest of this article here.
224,000 fake anti-impotence pills seized
PARIS (Reuters) - French customs officials have intercepted a shipment of 224,000 fake Viagra and Cialis anti-impotence pills worth 2.4 million euros ($3.5 million), the Budget Ministry said Monday.
The copies of the bestselling drugs were found on December 18 during a search at the French capital’s main air hub at Roissy, in a freight cargo on its way to Brazil from India.
“Branded Powergra and Erectalis, each box contained, in fact, four tablets in the characteristic shape and color of Viagra or Cialis pills,” Budget Minister Eric Woerth’s office, which is also in charge of customs, said in a statement.
“The companies Pfizer and Eli Lilly, which respectively own the Viagra and Cialis brands, quickly confirmed the counterfeit nature of these products and the 224,000 pills were seized,” Woerth’s office added.
Read more about these fake pills seized in France.
Bryan A. Liang: Beware fake pills from abroad
SAN DIEGO
THIS SUMMER, as part of a $91 billion farm bill, House lawmakers passed a measure to legalize the importation of prescription drugs from abroad. With so many recent stories of substandard and lethal goods already invading our shores, this is terrible public policy.
Supporters of drug importation think that simply because drugs are purchased from such “safe” countries as Canada and Britain, they are actually made there and are subject to strict health regulations and oversight. But this is a dangerous misconception.
Take Canada. If drugs are not earmarked for Canadian citizens, they are not subject to the Canadian government’s safety regulations. Just label the goods “for export only,” and Canada becomes a post-office box for fake or low-quality drugs from China, India, and other countries notorious for their ineffective and lethal products — as we’ve seen with everything from toothpaste to toys. And Canadian citizens themselves have been the victims of fake drugs. In Hamilton, Ontario, a registered pharmacist was recently charged with selling a counterfeit version of the blood-pressure drug Norvasc at his drugstore. Or look to Europe, where parallel trade — a process that allows the importation and re-importation of goods across EU-member states’ borders — is the standard.
At any point, counterfeiters can place fakes into the chain and pass them off with no one knowing the difference. This year, European officials warned of problems with phony drugs after seizing a large supply of such goods that had arrived from China by way of the United Arab Emirates. And several drug recalls have taken place in the United Kingdom after bogus drugs were detected in its supply chain.
Further, the Internet is a particularly worrying source of counterfeit imported drugs. In fact, World Health Organization officials estimate that 50 percent or more of drugs purchased online are fake. And tragic cases abound. A woman in Vancouver, for example, recently died from counterfeit meds purchased over the Internet. Internet drug pushers can and do put Canadian or British flags on their Web sites, claiming that their wares are Canadian, European, or even American in origin, regardless of the true source. It’s impossible to tell the difference — until it’s too late.
Unfortunately, the sheer number of criminal activities surrounding counterfeit-drug sales already overwhelms the Food and Drug Administration. With fewer than 17 full-time employees covering all international mail facilities in the United States, it is simply impossible for the FDA to inspect the 40,000 packages with drugs coming into Kennedy Airport, in New York, each day, let alone the millions coming into America each year at present.
Read the rest of this article on the potential for fake pills in the United States.
Health Canada to crack down on fake pills
A B.C. woman is fatally poisoned by counterfeit anxiety pills she ordered over the Internet, four Ontario patients die after apparently consuming fake — and ineffective — heart drugs, while Quebec vendors are spotted selling knock-off Viagra at a flea market.
A B.C. woman is fatally poisoned by counterfeit anxiety pills she ordered over the Internet, four Ontario patients die after apparently consuming fake — and ineffective — heart drugs, while Quebec vendors are spotted selling knock-off Viagra at a flea market.
The peddling of bogus pharmaceuticals is becoming such a worrisome problem that Health Canada has begun drafting a new anti-counterfeit strategy, expected to include beefed-up enforcement, stronger ties with police and a public-education campaign, a department official confirmed last week. The federal agency is also planning to hold a conference of interested parties to discuss the threat when the plan is released this fall.
For Health Canada officials used to dealing with a “generally compliant industry,” counterfeiting represents a novel kind of health issue, said Paul Duchesne, a department spokesman.
“Within the paradigm of counterfeiting, those responsible not only have deceitful intentions, but complete disregard for the regulatory system,” he said. “This new paradigm will require training and collaboration.”
The situation in Canada is not as serious as in some developing countries, where as many as half the prescription drugs on the market are imitations, but the phenomenon threatens to take off here if left unchecked, warns a senior Mountie who specializes in the counterfeiting problem.
“I think we do need to take action ? The quantity isn’t large, but the consequences can be pretty severe,” said Superintendent Ken Hansen, director of federal enforcement at the RCMP. “It’s something you want to try to nip in the bud before it gets out of control.”
Counterfeit drugs have emerged globally as a major problem in the last five years, with one U.S. organization predicting that worldwide sales could reach $75-billion by 2010. Criminally minded counterfeiters can make copies of expensive pills cheaply, sell them cheaply and earn a healthy profit.
Canada’s system of licensed, store-front pharmacies is still fairly safe, thanks to a tight regulatory system and a relatively small number of middlemen that makes slipping counterfeits into the supply chain difficult, experts say.
Nevertheless, bogus medication is increasingly showing up in Canada through unregulated Internet sites and even, in less common cases, at those licensed, real pharmacies.
One of the most disturbing cases involved Marcia Ann Bergeron, a 58-year-old Vancouver Island resident who died this year after taking counterfeit drugs she had ordered from a Web site. They contained high levels of aluminum and other metals that the B.C. coroner blamed this month for her death.
“Internet drug sites selling counterfeit medication are a complex and emerging health care problem,” coroner Kerry Clarke warned in her report.
Read the rest of this article on fake pills in Canada.