Can You Trust Medicine Imported from ANYWHERE in the world?

In 2019, Colorado passed legislation to allow the bulk importation of prescription drugs from Canada. The plan was already an unworkable and dangerous idea, which is now being made worse by some lawmakers who want to expand this allowance to import from countries all over the world – including, but not limited to, countries like Ecuador, China and Syria.

Colorado residents cannot trust that medicines shipped from across the globe are safe.

Many places in the world have weaker control over the production of medicine than the U.S. does, and pharmaceutical drug counterfeiting is an international epidemic.

Contact your state senator and tell them to oppose SB 20-119.

Confiscated drugs on a table in Columbia

Counterfeit HIV and cancer treatments and fake contraceptives, Colombia 2016. Source: El Colombiano

In January 2019, an Ecuadorian manufacturer of fake medicines was sentenced to five years in prison for “involvement in the crimes of producing, manufacturing, marketing, and distributing expired and falsified medicines.” Authorities uncovered 18 tons of fake medicines (counterfeit antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medicines, and more) in 18 other establishments across Ecuador.

This problem is epidemic in Latin America. 60% of medication sold in Mexico is stolen, expired, falsified or substandard. Colombia and Bolivia (where contraband medicine accounts for 21% of the national market) also have a substantial problem.

Chinese officer walking over a mountain of fake medicines

A Chinese policeman walks across a pile of fake medicines seized in Beijing. Source: Newsweek, 2015

Last December, Hong Kong authorities seized 2.4 million pills and 470 liters (124 gallons) of fake liquid medicines, including products to treat heart disease, high blood pressure, impotence, and arthritis.

China is the world’s largest producer of finished pharmaceutical products, but it has been a major supplier of fentanyl analogues and deadly counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills that have killed people all over the U.S. And it makes the largest percentage of counterfeit medicines in the world—the kind that kill tens of thousands of children in Africa every year.

Plastic bags full of fake drugs

Plastic bags of breast cancer drugs, leukemia medicine and other drugs seized in Syria. Source: Wall Street Journal

 

This is not a new problem. The Wall Street Journal reported on the widespread problem  of counterfeit drugs in the Middle East a decade ago. A fake medicine ring in Syria that was busted in 2010 boasted millions of dollars’ worth of cancer and heart disease drugs, as well as equipment used to make and package them.

How did American patients receive fake cancer medication with no active ingredient?

Criminals trafficked counterfeit cancer medication from the Middle East, to Turkey and through several EU countries before it landed in the U.S. These are all countries this legislation would allow importation from.

What could you do if you or a loved one were hurt by imported drugs?

The Justice Department indicted two men in 2018 for importing controlled substances and counterfeit medicines into the U.S., but they are still sitting safe in Shanghai. China has no extradition treaty with the U.S., so it is virtually impossible to bring a resident of China to justice if they sell Americans counterfeit drugs.

World Map showing extradiction status with the US

Source: The Economist

There are many countries we don't have extradition treaties with, and drug counterfeiters from all of them would be beyond the reach of prosecution.

Why would Colorado entertain the idea of worldwide drug importation when we know that we are opening our borders to this kind of danger? The legislature is putting patients’ health at risk for a backwards plan to lower drug costs. In reality, this will have little effect on the cost of prescription medications, but could have a life-threatening effect on patient health and safety.