World News

A number of counterfeit medicines being imported into Iraq across its vast borders are endangering the lives of Iraqis, especially people with chronic illnesses, a top United Nations health official has told Adnkronos International (AKI). "A large number of such drugs are entering the country, " said the UN World Health Organization Representative to Iraq…

A new Health Ministry project that will be put into practice in 2009 to combat the selling of fake medicine has already created controversy in the sector. The new Medicine Monitoring System will replace the current system in which medicine boxes are stamped with an identification number and price, and instead medicine will be monitored…

GETTING a doctor's appointment isn't always easy. And if your problem is minor or embarrassing the whole process seems even more of a hassle. So it's no surprise that self-diagnosis is increasing and the sale of medicines on the internet is booming. But it could be doing more harm than good? Feature writer KAREN HAMBRIDGE…

THE FLOW of counterfeit eastern luxury goods and sexual and athletic performance-enhancing medications into the European market has become a flood. Czech customs officers intercepted in the post and destroyed one tonne of fake Viagra, Cialis and anabolic steroid pills at Kralupy nad Vltavou, near Prague. Packages mailed from Hong Kong and India to addresses…

The Health Ministry's Department for Private Sector Institutions [DPSI], affiliated with the ministry's inspector general, closed two fake pharmacies in Al-Sadr city and seized large amounts of medicines yesterday [ 11 August]. The step comes in response to the ministry's national plan to control medicine sale in the private sector. Speaking to Al-Sabah, Health Ministry's…

THE Nigeria Customs Service has seized 120 containers of fake and expired drugs from importers. The Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Hamman Bello, who disclosed this when he visited the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Dora Akunyili, said the goods were seized from importers he called economic…

Twenty-five per cent of online shoppers in the UK either have or would be prepared to buy prescription drugs over the web, according to a survey. According to WebCredible's findings, more people would buy prescription drugs online than would buy cars or garden sheds. 13 August 2008 Read the full story at webuser.co.uk.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns consumers who recently filled prescriptions at two Medicine Shoppes in Baltimore they may have received expired or counterfeit drugs. The FDA is especially worried because the drugs in question are taken for serious illnesses and could have adverse effects on patients' treatments. 12 August 2008 Read the full…

NATIONAL Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is set to destroy N250 million worth of unwholesome products in Gombe this week, Mr. Abdulsalam Ozigis, its co-ordinator in the state, said Monday in Gombe. He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the items were seized across the six states of the North-East…

Two hundred private pharmacies selling expired and banned drugs were nabbed by the special unit of the National Drug Control Authority during a single day countrywide raid. These pharmacies had sold drugs without prescriptions and they did not have qualified and trained pharmacists, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry sources said. Nadira Gunatilleke29 July 2008 Read the…