Archive for 2013
Carolina Fake Drug Warehouse Seizure
Bargain Houseby Gerry Dincher via Flickr.
[...]Founder of Montana Healthcare Solutions Pleads Guilty in Counterfeit Cancer Drug Case
View larger map On March 21, 2013, Paul Bottomley, a citizen of the United Kingdom, signed a plea agreement acknowledging his guilt in distributing counterfeit versions of the cancer drug Avastin in the United States. He admitted that the business he founded, Montana Healthcare Solutions, played a significant role in distributing the counterfeit cancer medication…
[...]$3.6 Million of Fake Drugs Seized in South Carolina Warehouse
Special agents with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HIS) seized approximately $ 4 million worth of counterfeit goods and pharmaceuticals in South Carolina.
The seizure was the result of an investigation that began February 19th. Investigators from ICE-HSI, the South Carolina Secretary of State’s Office, Blazer Investigations and Pfizer found a stockpile of counterfeit goods in a warehouse in Columbia. The bulk of the seized counterfeit items were counterfeit pharmaceuticals, according to the ICE.
[...]FDA Portable Screening Devices
FDA Portable Screening Devicescourtesy of the FDA via Flickr.
[...]FDA Uses Portable Rapid Testing Devices to Insure Patient Safety
The FDA has released photographs of a portable XRF analyzer designed to screen dietary supplements for toxic metals. The device is one of a new generation of portable screening tools, which will allow investigators to discover and seize adulterated drugs before they are available to consumers. The FDA’s new efforts rely on spectroscopic technologies that “analyze the dispersion of an object’s light determine the object’s chemical or molecular composition.”
[...]Mexican Senate Increases Penalties for Medicine Counterfeiters
The Mexican Senate voted on March 12 to increase penalties to counterfeit drug sellers to nine years in prison and fines of up to 3 million pesos.
The Senate approved an amendment to article 464 of The General Health Law to increase penalties with 90 votes in favor. Senate Health Committee President Maki Esther Ortiz Dominguez said, “Anyone who sells or offers for sale, trades, distributes or transports medicine, drugs, raw materials that are falsified, altered, contaminated or adulterated, either in stores or in any other place….will be subject to the same penalty,” reported The News.
[...]Chambliss W. G, Carroll W. A, Kennedy D, Shepherd M*, et al. Role of the Pharmacist in Preventing Distribution of Counterfeit Medications. In: J Am Pharm Assoc. 2012;52(2):195-199.
Abstract Objective: To provide an overview of the counterfeit medication problem and recommendations of a joint American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science and APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management taskforce. Date sources: SciFinder and PubMed were searched from 1980 to March 2011 using the following keywords: counterfeit drug product, counterfeit…
[...]UNODC Conference Highlights Fake Drugs Distributed by Organized Crime
Last month, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) held a conference in Vienna to discuss the the production, distribution and trafficking of fake drugs by organized crime networks. The conference, which was held February 14-15, gathered an international group of experts from governments, law enforcement agencies, NGOs and the private sector to share information about the scale of the problem, which has significant impact worldwide. UNODC has found that in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America as much as 30 percent of available drugs are fraudulent, and that the trafficking of unsafe or ineffective medicine is “a multi-billion dollar activity.”
[...]Interpol Image
Image courtesy of INTERPOL.
[...]PSM Applauds INTERPOL, Industry Partnership to Combat Counterfeit Medicines
March
12, 2013 (Washington, D.C.) – The Partnership for Safe Medicines
(PSM), the leading advocacy organization dedicated to fighting the spread of
counterfeit drugs, applauds today’s
announcement of a bold new initiative between INTERPOL
and the pharmaceutical industry to combat the global health threat of
counterfeit and fake medicines.
This new initiative broadens the scope of the
successful Medical Product Counterfeiting and Pharmaceutical Crime Unit through
the creation of a Pharmaceutical Crime Program to assist and enhance worldwide
law enforcement efforts. Thomas Kubic, PSM Board Member and CEO of the
Pharmaceutical Security Institute, released the following statement hailing the
new agreement: