Policy and Law
COVID’s Impact On The Flow Of Counterfeits
What have we learned about counterfeit medicines during the pandemic? And what does it mean for proposals to import the drug supplies of other countries like Canada?
[...]Conti R, Dusetzina S. B. , and Sachs R. “How The ACA Reframed The Prescription Drug Market And Set The Stage For Current Reform Efforts.” Health Affairs. VOL. 39, NO. 3 (March 2020)
Abstract The Affordable Care Act contained a range of provisions that altered prescription drug access and affordability for patients, payers, and providers. Yet the act stopped short of instituting systemic changes in the pricing of drugs, in part to address concerns that more fundamental changes might disrupt the development of new medicines. Looking back a…
[...]Pitts, Peter J. “The Spreading Cancer of Counterfeit Drugs, Pharmaceutical Fakery Metastasizes from Lifestyle to Lifesaving Medicines,” Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2020) 25(3), 20–14. doi: 10.5912/jcb940
INTRODUCTION Just as the coronavirus mutates to survive and thrive, so to do the purveyors of counterfeit medicines – with their high-speed “host” being the digi-tization of patient care. The future is now. So, how do we balance moving forward with user-friendly digitization, telemedicine and virtual healthcare delivery while simultaneously recognizing the unintended consequences of…
[...]Acri née Lybecker, Kristina M.L., State Pharmaceutical Importation Programs: An Analysis of the Cost Effectiveness (June 12, 2019). Colorado College Working Paper 2019-02 June 2019.
Abstract Recently proposed legislation in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia aims to reduce spending on pharmaceuticals by importing them from Canada. To examine the cost effectiveness of importation, this study analyzes 24 drugs from an online Canadian supplier, accounting for the cost savings, the cost of testing, the…
[...]Former FBI Director Louis Freeh Updates His 2017 Report on the Threat of Congressional Drug Importation Proposals
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh has released an addendum to his 2017 Report on the Potential Impact of Drug Importation Proposals on U.S. Law Enforcement, concluding:
…the government has not done enough to evaluate and improve the capacity of law enforcement to deal with a new pipeline of drugs into the U.S. drug supply, all while . . . more illegal drugs are being shipped to the United States. Passing any drug importation scheme would erase the little progress we have made and set law enforcement further back on their heels.
[...]Guerra C, Mackey TK. “USA criminal and civil prosecutions associated with illicit online pharmacies: legal analysis and global implications.” Med Access @ Point Care 2017; 1(1): e104-e118.
ABSTRACT The rise of digital technologies has created a complex online environment that now includes illicit Internet pharmacies, online facilitators, advertising sites, and foreign entities. Collectively, these networks create significant patient safety risks, including acting as unregulated access points encouraging prescription drug use. Although law enforcement is active in combatting this form of cybercrime,…
[...]Making Canada America’s Medicine Cabinet Is Not The Solution To High Drug Prices
Marv Shepherd, President of Board of Directors for the Partnership for Safe Medicines, reexamined the possible effects on Canada’s drug supply should the U.S. legalize drug importation…
[...]Traynor, Kate. “California pharmacy board takes next steps toward electronic pedigree.” American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy 70, no. 4 (February 15, 2013): 303-304.
The article reports that the California State Board of Pharmacy held a meeting in December 2012 to address comments from the public regarding requirements for electronic record of transactions for prescription drugs. Traynor, Kate. "California pharmacy board takes next steps toward electronic pedigree." American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy 70, no. 4 (February 15, 2013):…
[...]Dégardin, Klara, Yves Roggo, and Pierre Margot. “Understanding and fighting the medicine counterfeit market.” Journal Of Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Analysis 87, (January 18, 2014): 167-175.
Abstract Medicine counterfeiting is a serious worldwide issue, involving networks of manufacture and distribution that are an integral part of industrialized organized crime. Despite the potentially devastating health repercussions involved, legal sanctions are often inappropriate or simply not applied. The difficulty in agreeing on a definition of counterfeiting, the huge profits made by the counterfeiters…
[...]Hottinger M, Liang BA*. Deficiencies of the FDA in Evaluating Generic Formulations: Addressing Narrow Therapeutic Index Drugs. Am J Law Med. 2012. Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2121528.
Abstract: Generic drugs represent a significant portion of the medical arsenal in treating disease. As copies of originator drugs, these drugs have been permitted abbreviated approval under the Hatch-Waxman law. Yet with current drive toward lowering costs focusing upon generic formulation of drugs, potential safety issues have arisen. Although there is an established criterion of…
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