PSM’s Executive Director Scott A. LaGanga Applauds the Recent Congressional Hearing on Counterfeit Medicine.

Scott Interchange 2013

In his op-ed featured in The Hill on March 1, 2014, LaGanga anticipated that the recent hearing Counterfeit Drugs, Fighting Illegal Supply Chains will spark new efforts by the government to educate patients and take stronger action to stop this growing health threat. He encouraged policymakers to better understand the real nature of the threats posed counterfeit drugs, and cited several recent incidents to illustrate how drug counterfeiting is a growing problem.

LaGanga wrote, “Trade in counterfeit medicines is a global industry, with both small-time crooks and multinational crime rings preying on innocent (and in many cases uninformed) patients. In a supply chain that spans the world, a growing number of entry points have opened for ingenious criminals. This is particularly true in nations with less regulatory control, and presents a significant danger to U.S. patients with the rise of unlicensed, illegal rogue online pharmacies.”

The global and organized crime nature of the counterfeit drug business is a serious concern of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). A 2014 report by the UNODC from the 20th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) states, “Criminal groups use to their advantage, gaps in legal and regulatory frameworks, weaknesses in capacity and the lack of resources of regulatory, enforcement and criminal justice officials, as well as difficulties in international cooperation. At the same time, the prospect of the comparatively low risk of detection and prosecution in relation to the potential income make the production and trafficking in fraudulent medicines an attractive commodity to criminal groups, who conduct their activities with little regard to the physical and financial detriment, if not the exploitation, of others.”

LaGanga also touched on topics such as the proliferation of fake online pharmacies and their tendency to pose as Canadian businesses, the dangers posed by importing from so-called Tier One countries, toxins found in fake drugs, and the shocking discovery of counterfeit cancer drugs in the US oncology practices.

LaGanga cited the NABP’s research that 97% of all online pharmacies do not meet basic criteria for accreditation, pointing out that “all those emails clogging our inboxes from purported ‘Canadian’ pharmacies are often selling unapproved, counterfeit and potentially lethal medicines with no guarantees of the drugs being produced in Canada or other so-called Tier One countries.”

Although it is incumbent upon policy makers to protect US consumers from counterfeit medications where they can, patients have the ability to protect themselves from being duped into taking misbranded, poorly stored, expired, or counterfeited prescription drugs. Our consumer resources page can teach you how to protect yourself from dangerous counterfeit medication.

By S. Imber