Archive for 2011
Anti-Counterfeiting Forum in India to Occur on March 4, 2011
On March 4, 2011, a one-day forum on pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting measures will be held in Mumbai at the Lalit Hotel. Sponsored by FDASmart, a company that trains pharmaceutical manufacturers in regulation and research studies, representatives of various companies that provide anti-counterfeiting solutions for medicine as well as regulatory agents and medicine manufactures will present their…
[...]8% of U.S. Prescription Drugs are Smuggled Via Pharmacy Scams
8% of prescription drugs available in the United States are smuggled via online drug scams involving internet pharmacies that sell to Americans. Val Kennedy, pharmaceuticals reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch interviewed Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bruce Foucart about the risks of online drug purchasing, and prescription drug smuggling…
[...]Strong Government Controls Protect Central African Anti-Malarial Meds Says WHO
The World Health Organization released a report on February 25, 2011 that identified substandard anti-malarial medications as one third of all in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. The rate of failure was highest in Nigeria, with 2 out of three samples failing WHO quality tests, reports The Science and Development Network. Following close…
[...]Dr. Margaret Chan Director-General World Health Organization
Dr. Margaret Chan Director-General World Health Organizationby World Economic Forum via Flickr.
[...]Hosseini SA, Darbooy Sh, Tehrani Banihashemi SA, Naseri SM, Dinarvand R. Counterfeit medicines: report of a cross-sectional retrospective study in Iran. Public Health. 2011 Mar; 125(3):165-71.
OBJECTIVES: To gain insight into the pharmaceutical grey market in Iran by reviewing inspection files of the Special Inspectorate Unit, Deputy Ministry for Food and Drugs, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and to define the counterfeit pharmaceutical pattern in Iran. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional retrospective study. METHODS: In total, 382 inspection files of pharmaceutical counterfeit…
[...]PSM’s Liang in JAMA: Online Direct to Consumer Advertising’s Impact on Illegal Online Pharmacies
Washington, D.C. (February 25, 2011) – Partnership for Safe Medicines Board of Directors’ member Bryan A. Liang, MD, PhD, JD, with colleague Tim Mackey, MAS, published an article in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) addressing the online direct to consumer (DTC) advertising market, and specifically how rogue online…
[...]U.K. Chemist Convicted for Drug Counterfeiting
A University College London organic chemistry lecturer was convicted for creating and selling counterfeit medication in the United Kingdom. The Independent reports that chemist Christiaan Winkel, a Dutch national, imported a machine from China and chemicals to make £1.6 million worth of fake erectile dysfunction pills and also used the equipment to make fake Ecstacy.…
[...]U.S. Customs Seize 20,000 Counterfeit Medications at Kennedy Airport
At New York’s Kennedy Airport, U.S. Customs and Border Protection flagged a cargo shipment from Hong Kong labeled “Farsan Sweet Dryfruit” for inspection on Thursday, February 17, 2011, and found approximately 20,000 pills inside. Fox News New York reported that officers examined the pills and identified them as counterfeit sildenafil, tadalfil and vardenafil. “The illicit…
[...]Russian Online Pharmacy Supplying Americans with Pain Pills Prescription-Free
Internal documents from ChronoPay, Russia’s largest processor of online payments, have shown that a Russian rogue pharmacy program called Rx-Promotion sold millions of controlled pills including Valium, Percocet, Tramadol and Oxycodone, in 2010 alone, mostly to Americans, without prescription requirements. Reporter Brian Krebs interviewed Pavel Vrublevsky in February 2011, the founder of ChronoPay, and also…
[...]Discovery of Counterfeit Nutritional Supplements with Dangerous Ingredients Spurs Company Recall
This is a reprint of the FDA alert. February 22, 2011 -Biotab Nutraceuticals, Inc. (“Biotab”) is conducting a voluntary recall of two lots of EXTENZE nutritional supplement tablets. Some packages bearing lot numbers 0709241 and 0509075 are counterfeit products containing undeclared drug ingredients that can pose a serious risk to health. Biotab learned about the…
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