Archive for June 2014
Oncologist in Laredo, Texas Sentenced in QSP Counterfeit Drugs Purchase Case
On December 20, 2013, Dr. Eduardo Miranda pleaded guilty to one count of introducing misbranded drugs into the country. Dr. Miranda specialized in treating patients with cancer. He ordered cancer drugs from Quality Specialty Products (QSP), a wholesale medication distributor and subsidiary of Canada Drugs. The drugs Dr. Miranda purchased were not approved for distribution…
[...]UK Public Health Experts Call for UN Intergovernmental Panel on Antimicrobial Resistance: Counterfeits cited for detrimental impact on antibiotic effectiveness
Full infographic available from the World Health Organization. The explosion of the global counterfeit drug trade has magnified antimicrobial resistance for ailments such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Now public health experts in the United Kingdom are calling for an organization bring together global expertise to fight the threat of drug resistance. The…
[...]McGruff the Crime Dog Has 7 Tips to Keep You Safe From Counterfeit Drugs
The National Crime Prevention Council has 7 tips for buying prescription drugs online. 1. Never purchase prescription drugs without your doctor's prescription. 2. Be familiar with the mediations you take, including the color, size, shape, taste and side effects. 3. Make sure the package or container the medication comes in has not been altered or…
[...]Kentucky cancer clinic office manager pleads guilty to selling misbranded chemotherapy drugs
Hematology and Oncology Center (HOC) PLLC and HOC’s former office manager, Natarajan Murugesan, pleaded guilty on June 18, 2014 to purchasing and selling unapproved and improperly labeled chemotherapy drugs. Between January 2010 and July 2011, Murugesan ordered non-FDA approved cancer treatments from Quality Speciality Products (QSP), a subsidiary of Canada Drugs that sold prescription medicines…
[...]More Cancer Drugs Stolen in Italy By Organized Crime Racket Found On Black Market
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has reported two additional cancer treatments that have been illegally distributed, after their theft in Italy in April, 2014. Lots of two additional cancer medications, Avastin (bevacizumab), an injectable cancer treatment used for colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and kidney cancer and MabThera (rituximab), a treatment of cancers of the lymphatic…
[...]Alabama Doctor Indicted for Purchasing Black Market IUDs from Medical Device King
Dr. Yashica Robinson-White, 38 of Opelika, Alabama is being prosecuted based on her business dealings with a black market wholesaler running out of Great Neck, New York. Dr. Robinson-White is accused of committing health care fraud for purchasing non-FDA approved IUDs from Medical Device King and implanting them in patients as if they were FDA-approved…
[...]Canadadrugs.com LP Wholesale License Suspended by Health Canada
via Flickr. Canadian online pharmacy CanadaDrugs.com suspended from supplying drug wholesalers and pharmacies after Health Canada investigations produced “significant concerns” with their shipping and storage practices. Canada Drugs has previously been identified as the owner of several subsidiary companies in the United States and United Kingdom that have been implicated in the importation of counterfeit…
[...]FDA warns consumers about potential health risks from using Thorne Research’s Captomer products
This is a reprint of an FDA Alert. [6/12/14] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to purchase or to use Thorne Research’s Captomer or Captomer-250, marketed as a dietary supplement for heavy metal toxicity and heavy metal chelation therapy. The products list DMSA (meso-2, 3-dimercaptosuccinic acid), as an active ingredient, which…
[...]Counterfeit Drug Charges for New York Black Market Drug Wholesalers Who Marketed to Hundreds of US Doctors
At the end of June in 2013, the FDA sent warning letters to close to 800 medical practices throughout the United States concerning their business exchanges with a black market medication wholesaler called Medical Device King/Pharmalogical. The subsequent investigation of Medical Device King has resulted in counterfeit drug and fraud charges being leveled against the…
[...]How Black Market Drug Wholesalers Fool Doctors and Endanger Patients, More at Interchange 2014
At Interchange 2013, we heard from Christopher Weaver of the Wall Street Journal about the role black market drug wholesalers played in the distribution of counterfeit Avastin. Dr. Marv Shepherd also described the tactics shady drug wholesalers use to sell their wares to hospitals. Since then there have been several prosecutions against black market drug…
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