Archive for February 2009
Empowering the FDA to Stop Counterfeit Drugs
After years of neglect, I’m glad to see Congress give drug safety the attention it deserves. Last week, Reps. John D. Dingell (D-MI 15), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ 06) and Bart Stupak (D-MI 01) introduced the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009 (H.R.759). In addition to addressing several food safety issues, the proposed legislation addresses the real threat of substandard and counterfeit drugs.
[...]Fake diabetes medicine seized in two more provinces [[Sichuan, China]]
Mainland authorities have found more than 5,000 bottles of fake diabetes medication in two provinces that last month were blamed for the deaths of two patients, state media said. The patients died in Xinjiang. Now the government has found the same fake drug in Sichuan and Qinghai, state radio said. But nobody has yet been…
[...]Counterfeit Drugs Pose Problem for Kenya [[Nairobi, Kenya]]
Pharmaceutical industry officials in Kenya estimate that at least 40 percent of the drugs sold in the East African nation are counterfeit, with anti-malarial drugs being especially susceptible to being faked. Patients continue to be sick or can even die as a result of taking counterfeit drugs, most are believed to originate from China and…
[...]Fake diabetes drug hospitalizes 9 in NW China’s Xinjiang [[Xinjiang, China]]
URUMQI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) — Nine people were hospitalized after taking a counterfeit diabetes drug in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that last month caused the death of two others, said the local government Tuesday. Four of the nine people were being treated in Kashi People's Hospital and are in stable condition. Five others…
[...]Thousands ‘have taken fake drugs’ [[London, England]]
Thirty-thousand packs of fake life-saving drugs may have been consumed by NHS patients, the BBC has learned. A senior official from the government's medicines watchdog said the case must lead to tightening of the law.
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