Archive for September 2010
Anti-Counterfeiting Technology Uses Radio Waves to Find Fake Drugs
Lund University Researchers from Sweden and the U.K. recently developed an anti-counterfeiting technology that they hope can combat the problem of fake drugs, particularly in Africa, according to AlphaGalileo.org The researchers have created a prototype of the device. It resembles a small suitcase and users place the medication in its packaging in the device,…
[...]Counterfeit Drugs a Problem for the World’s Rich as Well as the Poor
Governments are stiffening regulations against fake drugs and conducting more aggressive raids, as anti-counterfeiting technologies improve and NGOs support anti-counterfeiting campaigns. Counterfeit medicine smugglers have not been as aggressively pursued by international law enforcement as heroin or cocaine smugglers , however governments are stiffening regulations against fake drugs and conducting more aggressive raids. Companies are…
[...]Two Sentenced To Prison for Illegal Online Pharmacy
Two men were recently sentenced to prison for their involvement in an illegal online pharmacy. Daniel L. Dailey’s company, PowerMedica, illegally sold steroids and human growth hormone to thousands of customers over the internet. Dailey, who admitted that the company didn’t require prescriptions or customers to be seen by doctors, was sentenced to 46 months…
[...]Nigerian Businessman Charged with Importing Counterfeit Drugs
Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently arraigned a businessman on charges of importing counterfeit drugs. Paulinus Ejike Onuorah was arrested in May by NAFDAC agents at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja for allegedly bringing fake medicines into the country, reports the Nigerian Compass. One of the counts against the…
[...]NAFDAC Urges Pharmacy Owners to Reveal Source of Counterfeit Drugs
Officials from Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) are asking a number of pharmacies that were recently found to be selling counterfeit drugs to reveal the source of the fake medication. A special NAFDAC team from Lagos found 20 pharmaceutical and medicine shops in Yola, the capital of the Adamawa State, dealing…
[...]Unapproved Cancer Drug Sold Online Found to be Starch and Sugar
Distributor Sentenced to Prison A Canadian man was sentenced to 33 months in prison by an Arizona judge after pleading guilty to distributing counterfeit drugs earlier this year. Hazim Gaber had pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud in connection to selling a white powder he claimed was the experimental cancer drug dichloroacetate…
[...]DEA Heads First-Ever Nationwide Prescription Drug Take-Back Day
The Drug Enforcement Administration and government, community, public health and law enforcement partners announced a nationwide prescription drug “Take-Back” initiative that seeks to prevent increased pill abuse and theft. DEA will be collecting potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs for destruction at sites nationwide on Saturday, September 25 th from 10 a.m. to…
[...]Burki T. The Real Cost of Counterfeit Medicines. Lancet Infect Dis. 2010;10(9):585-6.
In April 2010, the Cambodian Ministry of Health announced that the previous 5 months had seen the enforced closure of nearly 65% of the Illegal pharmacies operating in the country. The US Agency for International Development (USAID)-backed Promoting the Quality of Medicines Programme-which is active in 30 nations-had gathered evidence that these pharmacies were a…
[...]Tech Company Introduces Anti-Counterfeiting Technology
An English technology company is working on a new, low-cost anti-counterfeiting technology to help combat the problem of fake medications. The company producing this new anti-counterfeiting technology will place a code on drug packaging that it hopes will be almost impossible to duplicate, according to Cambridge Business News. The new technology will place…
[...]Gavaza P, Shepherd MD*, Shcherbakova N, Khoza S. The state of health economics and pharmacoeconomics research in Russia: a systematic review. Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research. 2010 Sept; 1(3):113-21.
Abstract.
Objectives To investigate the state of health economic research in Russia available in the English language by describing the number and characteristics of the articles, and assessing the quality of these articles.
Methods The study assessed the state of health economics and pharmacoeconomics research in Russia. We conducted a literature search to identify health economics articles pertaining to Russia. Each article in the final sample was scored by two reviewers independently using the data-collection form designed for the study.
Key findings In total, 16 studies investigating a wide variety of diseases were included in the study. These articles were published in 15 different journals all based outside of Russia between 1994 and 2009. On average, each article was written by seven authors. Most first authors had medical/clinical training and resided in the USA (n = 8) at the time of publication of the study. Based on a scale of 1–10, with 10 indicating the highest quality, the mean quality score for all studies was 8.09 (SD = 1.29) and 25% of the articles were of fair quality (score 5–7). The quality of articles was statistically significantly related (P < 0.05) to the primary health intervention (pharmaceuticals > non-pharmaceuticals) and primary training of the first author (medical > non-medical).
Conclusions The conduct of health economics and pharmacoeconomics research in Russia in the English language is limited and, on average, the published articles were of good quality. However, about one-quarter of published articles were of fair quality. More health economics research in English is warranted in Russia.
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