Archive for October 2006

Last month, the AARP launched an ad campaign urging Congress to legalize the importation of prescription drugs from Canada. The advertisements were sure to find a sympathetic audience. After all, brand-name drugs are cheaper in Canada. In fact, they're about 5 percent below the international median. At first glance, legalizing importation seems like a laudable…

Political Deal Needs Decisive Response by Ottawa to Protect Canadian Drug Supply TORONTO, Oct. 5 /CNW/ – The return to a hands-off policy by U.S. Customs on prescription drugs purchased by American patients from Canadian internet pharmacies re-opens the door to the depletion of the Canadian drug supply and threatens public health and safety in…

Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are flooding hospitals, Web sites, pharmacies and street markets around the world. Visibly indistinguishable from life-saving medicine, the pharmafakes plague the developing world, affecting millions of people and undermining confidence in public health. By Terry J. Allen05 October 2006 Read the full story at inthesetimes.com.

In "The Third Man," the brilliant, shadowy, 1949 film, Orson Welles' character, Harry Lime, is a morally bankrupt, cynical racketeer and dealer of black-market, diluted penicillin. Purveyors of fake or diluted drugs are no less detestable today than they were six decades ago, but the business has grown to frightening proportions. The highly professional and…