Panel 1: Alex Dahl, Coalition for Patient Safety and Medicine Integrity

Alex Dahl, Coalition for Patient Safety and Medicine Integrity, spoke first at the "Protecting Our Medicines" panel about cargo theft, and the stealing of medicines out of the legitimate supply chain. What is the crime problem?  Large, sophisiticated criminal organizations are taking methodical stpes to steal medicines from cargo, and then reintroduce them into the…

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Panel 1: Michael Levy, Food and Drug Administration

Michael Levy, acting director of the Office of Drug Security, Integrity and Recalls (ODSIR) in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research's (CDER) Office of Compliance at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, spoke on the reorganization of the CDER. FDA's diversion and counterfeit criminal case information analyzed 5 years worth of cases to better…

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Interchange Opens with Executive Director Remarks

The Partnership for Safe Medicines Interchange 2011 opened at 8:30am with remarks by Scott LaGanga, Executive Director of PSM.   Said LaGanga, last year’s Interchange focused on who are the actors in the world of counterfeit medicines: the criminals, the victims and law enforcement that works to stop the criminals and help the victims.  This…

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Representative Matheson Makes Opening Remarks at Interchange

Congressman Jim Matheson of Utah's Second Congressional District spoke at the opening of the Partnership for Safe Medicines Interchange.   He talked about legislation he has introduced into Congress to secure the drug supply and took questions from the audience. A question from the audience asked how the legislation would address medicines purchased over the…

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NABP Receives Guardian Award

At the Partnership for Safe Medicines pre-conference reception on October 26, 2011, in Washington, DC, PSM President Dr. Marv Shepherd presented the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy with the Partnership for Safe Medicines Guardian Award for heroically contributing to drug safety.

Presenting the award to Elizabeth Scott Russell of NABP (shown in the photo), Dr. Shepherd spoke about NABP’s work protecting consumers from dangerous drugs purchased over the internet.  NABP has created three critical developments that have significantly improved consumer education and protection.

Dr. Shepherd cited NABP’s development of the VIPPS® (Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites) accreditation program, which helps consumers find safe sources for purchasing medicine online. NABP keeps a database of verified online pharmacies that are safe for consumers to purchase from on their website at http://vippspharmacies.net/.

Websites unaffiliated with pharmacies that sell medication online prey upon people who depend upon medication for their health, and chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and cancer. In order to combat these fake pharmacies, NABP and the state boards of pharmacy have instituted a consumer protection program, AWARxE, www.awarerx.org, which provides information to safely obtain medication and news and links on NABP resources.

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