Policy/Enforcement News
Pharmacy Technician Indicted in Major Drug Diversion
April 25, 2011 – Cleveland, Ohio prosecutors have charged four people in a forty count indictment for allegedly conducting a major prescription drug diversion ring, dealing millions in painkillers. Cuyahoga County prosecutors said that drugs were obtained with the help of a pharmacy insider and then sold on the street. Ebonie Hubbard, a pharmacy technician…
[...]Thirteen Indicted of Infiltrating Hospital with Fake Drugs
Thirteen suspects were charged by the Luwan District Prosecutors’ Office of manufacturing and selling a fake cancer drug that caused eye infections in 61 people in Shanghai on April 26, 2011. 116 patients of Shanghai No. 1 People’s Hospital were prescribed Avastin, a cancer drug also used to treat macular degeneration in September 2010. Of…
[...]Two Indian Fake Medicine Operations Busted
Indian police busted a fake medicine packing unit in Patna, India on April 22, 2011. Police led a team to a house owned by Vidyanand Thakur in Nagwan village and seized fake medication in powder form, wrappers, a punching machine and medicine filled in bottles, reports The Times of India. The Superintendent of Police said…
[...]Vast Malaria Drug Theft Leaves Patients Untreated
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have discovered that millions of dollars of donated malaria drugs have been stolen since 2009, vastly exceeding the suspected levels of theft.
The Global Fund developed a new anti-corruption program after exposed grant fraud prompted donors to demand greater transparency, reports the Associated Press.
Officials identified thirteen countries, mostly in Africa, where the drugs have gone missing from government supplies and have been resold, possibly tampered with or improperly stored, on the black market.
“Heat, high humidity and exposure to sunshine can cause accelerated decomposition of the stolen product,” says Dr. Marv Shepherd, Director of the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Studies at University of Texas-Austin’s College of Pharmacy. When these products are re-sold on the black market, they could be ineffectve at treating malaria and contribute to the growing resistance problem.
Global Fund spokesman Jon Liden said that $2.5 milion worth of malaria drugs are suspected of being stolen from Toga, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Cambodia, adding, “We take this very seriously and we will do what it takes to protect our investment.”
Western Cambodia is undergoing an outbreak of artemisinin resistant malaria, the first known worldwide, caused, in part, by poor malarial treatments. The treatments are poor due to improper drug treatment regiments, or because medications purchased for these regiments may have been diluted or stored improperly and therefore weakened. Additionally, counterfeit pills with limited or no effectiveness may have been repackaged in the legitimate medicine packaging.
Tom Kubic, President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Security Institute is concerned. “Theft of this magnitude of life saving medication is a very serious global health concern. Every time medication leaves the legitimate supply chain it is vulnerable to tampering, including dilution of injectable drugs. Additionally, there have been incidents were counterfeit medicines were found in genuine, reused packaging. Gravely ill patients are at risk of receiving ineffective treatment and again, the most needy suffer.”
[...]US Doctor Sold Fake Cancer Drugs to Patients: Gets 1 Year in Jail
On April 15, 2011, Kurt Walter Donsbach, 75, of San Diego, was sentenced to a year in county jail and probation of ten years after pleading guilty in December to 13 felony charges including unlawfully selling fake drugs to cancer patients, practicing medicine without a license and attempted grand theft.
[...]US Training African Nations to Better Identify Dangerous Fake Drugs
In Accra, Ghana, scientists from the national laboratories of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Sierra Leon, are being trained this week to use the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention’s database of medicine samples in order to better identify falsified and counterfeit medicines that plague their countries’ marketplaces. U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a nonprofit public health organization…
[...]Operation “Bright Sword” Disrupts Counterfeiters
Chinese police have seized 14,185 suspects since November, 2010, in a campaign to halt the trade in counterfeit goods, including software, food, drugs, and luggage. The Ministry of Public Security announced April 12, 2011, that the suspects were involved in more than 8,000 investigations into counterfeiting and 7,000 production and sales outlets, reported China Daily.…
[...]WHO Calls for Coordinated Effort to Fight Drug Resistance
2011 World Health Day was commemorated by WHO regional director, Luis Gomes Sambo, by urging leaders to fight drug resistance by removing counterfeit medicine, bad prescribing habits and over exposure to sub-optimal quantities of medications. “If not properly managed, resistant germs may spread and cause severe diseases. However, attempts have been made to overcome drug…
[...]Three Month Trial of Alleged Fake Cancer Drug Distributors Ends
Prosecuting lawyer, Andrew Marshall, told Croydon Crown Court, that the five defendants accused of selling fake Chinese-manufactured medicine were deliberately “protect[ing] their dirty business.” Five pharmaceutical wholesaler businessmen, who had done business together legitimately for many years, are accused of deliberately purchasing fake cancer, heart disease, and mental health medications and selling them into the…
[...]The Community Must Stand Up to Protect Victims of Fake Drugs
Sri Lankan stakeholders gathered in Kandy on April 4th to educate pharmacists “to protect Sri Lankan families from counterfeit drugs” at the Sri Lanka Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry conference (SLCPI). Promoted also by the US Embassy, American Chamber of Commercial and the National Intellectual Property Organization, the seminar was attended by Health Ministry and Drug…
[...]