Buying medicine online has increased in popularity, but the risks of purchasing online are little understood by consumers. Purchasing from a rogue pharmacy, often indistinguishable from a legitimate one, can put your health and money in the hand of international scam artists that may send you pills that do nothing or make you sicker. Marketwatch’s…
Read MoreThe Partnership for Safe Medicines today commended Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) for introducing legislation to curb prescription drug theft
Read MorePharmacy by 12th St David via Flickr. Robert Smoley, a 59 year-old Miami-Dade lawyer, pleaded guilty in federal court to selling millions of pharmaceutical drugs without prescriptions over the Internet on March 3, 2011. Smoley admitted that he distributed in excess of $48 million worth of medicine through the mail. Federal agents said after accepting…
Read MoreDr. Margaret Chan Director-General World Health Organizationby World Economic Forum via Flickr. On February 28, 2011, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said that the World Health Organization does not conflate intellectual property issues with those of patient safety in their concerns for counterfeit medication proliferation. Opening the Work Group of Member…
Read MoreHungarian National Anti-Counterfeit Board (HENT) announced that starting March 1, 2011, a new law on counterfeit drugs will increase fines on unlicensed producers and traders to HUF 100,000. The purpose of the new law is to restrict unlawful profiteering and prevent fakes from entering the legitimate supply chain. The new law commissions officials to confiscate…
Read MoreOn February 25, 2011, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) announced that more than 8.5 million pills were intercepted at the border in 2010. Head of Border Force, Brodie Clark, said “This massive haul makes it clear just how seriously we take the smuggling of fake and unlicensed medicines. As well as stopping drugs, weapons and…
Read MoreOn March 4, 2011, a one-day forum on pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting measures will be held in Mumbai at the Lalit Hotel. Sponsored by FDASmart, a company that trains pharmaceutical manufacturers in regulation and research studies, representatives of various companies that provide anti-counterfeiting solutions for medicine as well as regulatory agents and medicine manufactures will present their…
Read More8% of prescription drugs available in the United States are smuggled via online drug scams involving internet pharmacies that sell to Americans. Val Kennedy, pharmaceuticals reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch interviewed Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bruce Foucart about the risks of online drug purchasing, and prescription drug smuggling…
Read MoreThe World Health Organization released a report on February 25, 2011 that identified substandard anti-malarial medications as one third of all in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. The rate of failure was highest in Nigeria, with 2 out of three samples failing WHO quality tests, reports The Science and Development Network. Following close…
Read MoreWashington, D.C. (February 25, 2011) – Partnership for Safe Medicines Board of Directors’ member Bryan A. Liang, MD, PhD, JD, with colleague Tim Mackey, MAS, published an article in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) addressing the online direct to consumer (DTC) advertising market, and specifically how rogue online…
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