How Fake Drug Criminals Snare Consumers Online

How is technology advancing in counterfeit drug crime? Learn more at the 2012 Interchange where Timothy K. Mackey, MAS, the 2011-2012 Carl L. Alsberg, MD, Fellow for Safe Medicines will present his research,  “A Day in the Life of Illegal Online Drug Sellers.”

Counterfeit drug sellers and fake online pharmacies use sophisticated web search redirection, IP-hijacking, and search result flooding to manipulate Internet users to purchase from their online counterfeit drug sites.

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SMS Verification A Growing Technique to Fight Counterfeit Drug Crime

In the global fight to combat counterfeit drug crime, simple SMS technology is leading the charge for patient safety. 

A simple and low-cost solution to drug verification problems for patients, SMS text verification empowers consumers to protect themselves from counterfeit drugs by sending a numeric code from their drug packaging from their phone for free verification.  We’ll be discussing this and other technological innovations in the counterfeit drug fight at the 2012 Interchange on September 28, 2012.

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RISD, UC Irvine, and Instructables Host Fake Online Pharmacies?

Websites subjected to IP hijacking.  This week, its medicine, the arts, & DIY! July 16, 2012 Curiosity about the true state of web search redirection and IP hacking in the wild, wild west of the Internet drove us to set up a weekly search via Google for online pharmacies. The news notifications always finish up…

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Online Pharmacies Implicated in Counterfeit Drug Case Spanning Europe

The MHRA has announced that three men have been sentenced to 89 weeks imprisonment for laundering $400,000 generated by a fake online pharmacy selling counterfeit medicines.

The men were prosecuted as part of a wider investigation.  From 2004 to 2009 they were laundering profits from a criminal online pharmacy website based in Cyprus.  Says the MHRA, “The business was run by a UK criminal who set up a number of illegal online pharmacy businesses selling counterfeit and powerful prescription-only medicines from outside of the UK.”

The MHRA has been on a tear of prosecutions against illegal online pharmacies and counterfeit medicine and medical device sellers.  In early 2012, the MHRA let FDA agents know they suspected counterfeit cancer medications were being passed into the U.S.  They also prosecuted UK-based counterfeit drug distributor Peter Gillespie in 2011, who was working closely with Kevin Xu, convicted in the US for manufacturing and distributing counterfeit medications in 2010.

MHRA Director of Inspection, Enforcement and Standards, Gerald Heddell, will be speaking at the 2012 Interchange on September 28.  The Interchange, at the National Press Club, in Washington, DC, is a full day conference of policymakers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, patient advocates, law enforcement, healthcare professionals, and anti-counterfeiting companies discussing the safety, health, and legal issues of counterfeit medications. Learn about the most recent criminal cases involving the MHRA and others at the 2012 Interchange.

MHRA agents made test purchases of counterfeit medicines to establish a link to the criminal enterprise, and then financial investigators traced over $1.5 million in three years from the websites’ UK bank account to a bank account in Cyprus. 

The impact that online counterfeit drug sales have on patients’ health is real, remarked Nimo Ahmed, Acting Head of Enforcement at MHRA. 

“This case highlights the criminality of the people who continue to put profit before patient’s health. These illegal pharmacy websites selling medicines bought from illegitimate sources pose a real threat to people’s health because they simply don’t know what they are getting.”

However, not all internet pharmacies are specious.  Online pharmacies that have the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Seal (VIPPS) are safe sources for the convenience and cost savings of online shopping, without the risks of potential counterfeit medications.

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Fake Online Pharmacies: The Wild, Wild West

Online pharmacies have been implicated in several recent criminal cases, from accusations of wire and mail fraud, to distribution of counterfeit medications for cancer, ADHD and pain.

Experts at The Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, a non-profit for the purpose of protecting patient safety globally and ensuring patient access to safe and legitimate online pharmacies warn that this may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Learn more at the  2012 Interchange on September 28, 2012 at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

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India Patient Safety and Drug Detection Technology Workshop – September 10-11, 2012

On September 10th, 2012, the India Office of the Partnership for Safe Medicines is organizing a Patient Safety and Drug Detection Technology Workshop in New Delhi, India.  Working with the Government of India, the workshop builds upon a September 2011 APEC Drug Safety and Detection Technology seminar held in Beijing.   The workshop’s objectives are…

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