Canadian Doctors, Pharmacists, Patient Groups and Government Representatives Consider State Importation Proposals Unfeasible

In spite of recent efforts by legislators in Florida, Maine, Colorado, and elsewhere, Canadian patient groups are vocally opposing pending legislation that proposes importing prescription medications from the Canadian drug supply. Paul Blanchard of the New Brunswick Pharmacists’ Association told CBC News, “The country’s pharmacists association has been talking to the federal government … to make sure that the federal government and Canada is aware that the Americans are literally knocking on our door.”

[...]

Florida Couple Prosecuted for Selling Fake Botox Wholesale

The recent prosecution of Jorge Nogueira and Jessyka Molina for selling counterfeit Botox wholesale highlights one of Florida’s biggest counterfeit drug problems: fake beauty injections. This is the third action against fake beauty injections in Florida in the last year.

[...]

New Report Highlights Continued Illicit Online Prescription Drugs Sales In China

ASOP Global and LegitScript released a report analyzing the prevalence of illicit online sales of prescription drugs in China, a country where such sales are prohibited. Their analysis showed that about half of all Chinese online pharmaceuticals sellers are illicit, potentially exposing patients to counterfeit medicines, substandard medicines, financial fraud, and identity theft…

[...]

A Texas Athlete’s Life Cut Short by Trust

Blain Padgett earned a full athletic scholarship and a defensive end position with the Rice University Owls in 2015 through persistence, vision and sheer hard work, but his dream of playing college football was cut short on March 2, 2018, when he was found dead in his apartment. Investigation showed that Blain’s cause of death was fentanyl poisoning: the hydrocodone pill he’d taken from a friend for his shoulder pain turned out to be a counterfeit laced with carfentanil.

[...]

Website Operators Warned by FDA/DEA Offered Antibiotics, Cancer & HIV Treatments in Addition to Misbranded Opioids

On September 30th, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a joint warning to four online networks that were operating a total of ten fake online pharmacy websites. While all four networks were offering misbranded/counterfeit opioid medications such as tramadol and Soma for sale, three of the online networks had marketplaces offering misbranded medications to treat a kaleidoscope of ailments, such as allergies, cancer, smoking, asthma, and infection.

[...]

How do you test whether a medication is legitimate?

Infographic showing how medication is tested.

Testing medicine for legitimacy is a complicated process. Across 24 different prescription medicines, the average cost to test a single dose is $2,750. However, ensuring that a batch of 100 pills is safe requires testing at least 22 pills. To learn more about this topic, read PSM’s summary: safedr.ug/Acri-Explained.

[...]

Bloomberg Misses The Mark In Its Article About Drug Importation Advocacy

In case you missed it, Bloomberg’s Ben Elgin has published an “in-depth” piece on the connection between PhRMA and the Partnership for Safe Medicines. However, this has been public and widely reported on for years. More concerningly, the story misses the broader point about the clear safety concerns of foreign drug importation. Over the past…

[...]

Loving South Carolina Father Poisoned by Counterfeit Anxiety Medicine

Eric Highsmith Griffin of Lexington, South Carolina died of fentanyl poisoning on May 10, 2016 after taking a Xanax for anxiety. He had no way of knowing that the medicine he had purchased from a friend of a friend was not just like the medicine he’d been prescribed. He would never have risked his life or caused suffering to his children and family if he had known that a non-opioid anti-anxiety medication could really be a counterfeit poison pill.

[...]