Travis Johnson, Director of Legislative Affairs and Policy, International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, spoke on panel one about what industry is doing to fight counterfeiting. He said that the borders are not the only places to look for counterfeit medicines and that law enforcement has to ask "how are people finding the fake drugs?" He…
Read MoreAlex 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…
Read MoreSen. Bennet (Colorado) was the first speaker at the Partnership for Safe Medicines 2011 Interchange. His remarks were videotaped and will be available in video format soon on our YouTube channel.
Read MoreAt 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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Alex Dahl will speak on the panel, “Protecting Our Medicines.” He is a member of The Coalition for Patient Safety and Medicine Integrity which is a group of pharmaceutical, medical device and medical products companies focused on patient safety.
Its purpose is to protect patients from the risks posed by stolen and inappropriately handled medical products re-entering the legitimate supply chain. The Coalition includes: Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi Aventis, and PhRMA.
Saving Lives with SMS for Life Photo by ibmphoto24, via Flickr. The Wall Street Journal’s Innovation Award judges recognized two health care IT projects that use cell phone technology to provide access to medication to patients in Africa. Judges chose the SMS for Life Project as the most innovative technology in Health-Care IT…
Read MoreWashington, D.C. (October 17, 2011) – Addressing the growing public health crisis posed by counterfeit medicines in Brazil requires the coordinated effort of all stakeholders across the country, said Partnership for Safe Medicines Executive Director Scott LaGanga during a forum today in Rio de Janeiro on counterfeit medicines hosted by Interfarma and Brazilian newspaper O…
Read MoreKumar C. Kibble will be the keynote speaker for The Partnership for Safe Medicine’s Interchange on October 27, 2011 at the National Press Club.
Kumar C. Kibble is the deputy director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In that capacity, he is the chief operating officer for the principal investigative agency of the Department of Homeland Security, with more than 20,000 employees assigned to more than 400 offices worldwide and an annual budget of almost $6 billion.
The International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO) conducted a seminar to build better understanding of patients needs in Pacific-Asia including the risks of counterfeit medications. “Patients should be the local leaders of a whole of society approach to tackling the pressing healthcare challenges of today,” announced IAPO at the seminar in Manilla, Philippines. The IAPO…
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Xuanhao Chan, lead technical officer for the International Pharmaceutical Federation, will join panelists on “The role of Patients and Healthcare Professionals” at the Partnership for Safe Medicine Interchange on October 27, 2011.
Chan is a registered pharmacist from Singapore and for the past 6 years, he has been working for the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) in various positions. More recently, in 2008 he established the first branch office for FIP in Geneva managing the Federation’s global public health partnerships and serves as the FIP advocacy focal point with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international health-related agencies in Geneva, Switzerland.