The Partnership for Safe Medicines recently gained access to a RFP submission from a foreign drug broker, purporting to save money for a Maine employee union. We studied the top 30 medications purchased by this union and price-compared black market foreign pharmacies to pharmacies who possessed a pharmacy license in Maine.
Using legitimate, FDA approved generic saves more than 80% of the cost of the name-brand medication, while purchasing from the black market foreign pharmacy saves less than 50%, while exposing patients to the dangers of substandard, misbranded and counterfeit drugs.
Read MoreView larger map On May 25, 2013, France’s Ministry of Economy announced the largest seizure of counterfeit medication ever made by France and the European Union. French customs agents in Le Havre discovered 1.2 million doses of counterfeit aspirin hidden in a shipment of tea originating from China. The goods in the shipment were destined…
Read MoreMay 28 2013 is World Anti-Counterfeiting
Day. The
Global Anti Counterfeiting Network has announced Interpol and the Malaysia Health Service as the winners of their 15th
Annual Global Anti Counterfeiting Awards. While
not an event traditionally widely observed, this day gives us a chance to try and highlight our work to protect
patients from counterfeit drugs. If
you’re reading this, you probably care about protecting patients, but you
haven’t done anything to prepare for the event. The Partnership for Safe Medicines has made
it easy for you to highlight patient safety on this day, by giving you easy
resources for writing tweets, posting to Facebook, sending email, or writing a
letter to the editor on this day.
If you’re planning to help, please send us a note and we’ll keep an eye out for your messages!
Quick links:
- Campaign homepage: http://www.safemedicines.org/patient-and-doctor-tips-shareable-content.html
- TIPS for American patients: http://www.safemedicines.org/drug-safety-tips-for-patients.html
- TIPS for American physicians: http://www.safemedicines.org/drug-safety-tips-for-doctors.html
What we have planned
We are launching our patient and physician TIPS campaign on
World Anti-Counterfeiting Day. The
campaign includes 25+ tips on how patients can avoid counterfeit drugs, and
physicians can avoid unauthorized distributors selling counterfeit drugs. The tips have short versions that can fit in
a tweet or Facebook message, or longer versions that can fit in an email or
print newsletter. Each one contains an
original illustration like this one:
Ways you can help
Post a tip to Facebook or Twitter.
Post a note of support for the campaign recognizing PSM’s efforts on Twitter.
Send a tip to your mailing list, with links to more.
Post a blog post on your website.
Post a link to our campaign on your website, either in text or with one of
the tips graphics.
Write an op-ed.
Read MoreDear Speaker Boehner and Chairman Upton:
On behalf of the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), we write today in strong support of H.R.
1919, the “Safeguarding America’s Pharmaceuticals Act”.
PSM is a not for profit, consumer focused organization that seeks to
keep Americans safe from counterfeit drugs through patient and healthcare
provider education and awareness. In
the US we work with a coalition of over 70 healthcare professional and patient
groups to improve patients’ and their
healthcare providers’ knowledge about where they obtain their medication, how
they can save money safely, and how to safely identify licensed pharmaceutical
distributors.
PSM strongly supports the creation of a national uniform track and trace
or pedigree system that would allow all participants in the supply chain to
verify a product’s history of sale.
Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturer Guilin Pharmaceuticals is rolling out SMS-text message codes on packaging to ensure authenticity of its antimalarial medication in Nigeria.
Guilin’s artesunate meets world-wide quality assurance standards and has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Prequalification Programme applies unified standards of quality, safety and efficacy to medicinal products and includes manufacturing inspections, and evaluation of ingredients. Though the program is mainly used by UNAIDS and UNICEF to guide procurement, other agencies use it as a guide to determine safety at an international level, reports the WHO.
Now, purchasers of the medication can guard against purchasing counterfeit versions by scratching off a hidden identification code on drug packages. Patients can send the code via text message to a computer that will send back a safety message if the package is authentic, reports The Financial Times.
Read MoreThe FDA has released more information about their new counterfeit drug detection device, Counterfeit Detection Device 3 (CD-3). In this newly-released video, Nico Ranieri, the FDA research biologist who developed this new technology talks about how important such innovations are to patient safety.
In
2005, it first occurred to Nicolas Ranieri to try to use the type of
ultra-violet light devices deployed in crime scene investigations in a
hand-held counterfeit drug detection device.
Up to that point, drug testing equipment was both delicate, expensive, and
also required highly-trained scientists to
perform the tests for fakes. Says
Ranieri, “We wanted to find counterfeits, and we wanted to find them as fast as
possible,” reports the FDA.
Rx360 has launched a new campaign educating healthcare providers to the risks of buying diverted and suspect products advertised directly to doctors’ offices via fax blast, direct email and online marketing.
Lewis T. Kontnik, team lead for the education campaign, says, “Some of the recent
problems with counterfeit and diverted medicines in the US, including
the counterfeit versions of Avastin, resulted in part from a lack of
awareness by physicians and medical practice administrators
of the risks of counterfeit and diverted medicines. The ads of the
professional diverters can appear tempting when they promise ‘genuine’ medicine and substantial discounts, however the facts are different and
the consequences can be very serious.”
When London police raided an apartment in west London last month, they were looking for visa cheats. What they found instead was over $750,000 worth of counterfeit medications stored in deplorable conditions.
A raid by Home Office Immigration Enforcement officers in West London that was aimed at catching people who had overstayed their visas instead found a vast quantity of unlicensed prescription medications, reports the MHRA. Investigators from the MHRA believe the drugs, which were mostly ED, weight loss, and hair loss treatments, were manufactured in India. Anabolic steroids were also found in the raid.
Read MoreIn 2012, the FDA sent over 350 warning letters to doctors advising them they may have purchased fraudulent or misbranded injectable drugs, including fake versions of Avastin, Botox, and two different osteoporosis treatments. Now the FDA has identified another batch of fake Botox that is currently being marketed to doctor via fax blast.
On April 26, 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted a drug safety warning for healthcare practitioners, warning them that fraudulent versions of the anti-wrinkle treatment Botox are being marketed and sold in the US. The Botox is being sold by unlicensed suppliers, and has not been vetted within the secure U.S. supply chain. They state that the FDA “cannot confirm that the manufacture, quality, storage, and handling of these products follow U.S. standards. These fraudulent products are considered unsafe and should not be used.“
Read MoreTwo proposals in the Maine legislature (LD 171 and LD 449) to import drugs from all over the world would endanger Maine patients without saving them any money. Maine patients would end up having their prescriptions filled by foreign companies that aren’t licensed pharmacies and sell drugs that aren’t even FDA-approved, assuming they didn’t get counterfeit drugs with either chalk or toxins.
For a serious condition, such as high blood pressure, asthma, and blood clots, even medicine made of chalk is a dangerous pill.
Read More