Archive for 2011

USAID raised the counterfeit drug alarm to Congress in a report including data on pervasive
fake anti-malarials and the success of medicine quality control assistance to 20 nations. USAID is
successfully fighting the impact of substandard medicines in developing countries through drug
authenticity training and technical assistance.

“Unfortunately, many developing countries lack the capacity to protect their citizens in this way, much less to protect them from unscrupulous drug manufacturers and vendors. What should be a matter of trust is more like a tragic game of chance with devastating odds,” said Dr. Maria A. Miralles, USAID’s
Senior Pharmaceutical Management Advisor.

To this end, USAID has also been supporting the development of a tool to enable regulatory authorities to evaluate their quality assurance systems in more than 20 nations, leading to recalls of substandard and counterfeit medicines and closure of illicit pharmacies.

The World Health Organization is screening all residents of 20 villages in northwest Cambodia where drug-resistant malaria has evolved in part due to the victims exposure to counterfeit anti-malarial medications.

Ho Chi Minh City police have arrested 14 people who are allegedly members of a fake medicine production ring that police have been following for over a year.

A U.S. web hosting provider admitted that hackers have invaded dozens of web pages
of government, educational and financial sites through a software flaw to promote online rogue
pharmacies.

Brian Krebs, an investigative journalist, reported that a customer of a Utah based web site host provider exploited a bug in a web site
administration tool used by a majority of hosting providers to ultimately
redirect visitors from these institutional websites to online stores selling prescription drugs without
prescription requirements.

A new study shows online rogue pharmacies using North American and Western European web hosting while fulfilling orders from other regions of the world.