A St. Louis, Missouri resident, Mark Hughes, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison by U.S. District Court on February 7th, 2011, four selling thousands of counterfeit erectile dysfunction pills. Hughes ordered counterfeit versions of ED drugs online from China and India, and sold them via an illegal and unlicsensed pharmacy and by…
A Providence, Rhode Island resident pleaded guilty on February 8th, 2011, of smuggling erectile dysfunction drugs from the People’s Republic of China falsely labeled as herbal dietary supplements. Anny L. Puello, 32, the owner of JMM LLC, admitted importing thousands of ED drugs that were shipped from a Chinese supplier, Chengdu Kang Quan Health Product Company…
A Nigerian pharmaceutical manufacturer has begun supplying the country’s chemists and clinics with life saving medicines packaged with new security codes verifiable by text messaging. The new packaging contains a code revealed by scratching off a code on the medicine package. The consumer can verify the drugs authenticity by sending a text message of the…
In North America, there were 199 reported incidents of counterfeit medicines in 2009, greater than Africa, the Near East, and Eurasia.
As the World Health Organization and its partners are spending $175 million to block the spread of artemisinin-resistant malaria along the border of Cambodia and Thailand by providing free care, free medication, and a pervasive police force hunting down fake drugs military troops from both countries are exchanging gunfire
U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is providing five sub-Saharan African countries with technical aid to improve the public access to high quality, affordable medicines, announced the organization on February 8th, 2011. USP has launched a pilot Technical Assistance Program (TAP) to provide developing countries with capacity building in medicine quality evaluation. Participating countries will be provided…
Five companies have been issued patents for anti-counterfeiting technology ranging from packaging innovation to spectroscopy. Securing Pharma reports that Microsoft, AlpVision, Axsun, AuthentiForm, and CSEM have been issued patents for anti-counterfeiting medicine technologies. Microsoft has developed a method to create counterfeit resistant labels using unique images on labels that are not economically easy to duplicate,…
An online pharmacy operator, convicted in May 2009 for distributing approximately 44 million doses of prescription medication to consumers without valid prescriptions, has forfeited $12 million in profit. Approximately $2.67 million went to the local law enforcement agencies that prosecuted him, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
Jude LaCour and his father Jeffery LaCour, ran an online pharmacy under the corporation name, “Jive Network, Inc.” which distributed controlled substances and other prescription drugs to customers throughout the United States who did not have valid prescriptions, reported Network World.
LaCour, a Daytona Beach resident, was found guilty of 52 counts of money laundering and drug-trafficking offenses involving the sale of controlled substances over the internet.
Indian Customs Official seized 14,000 misoprostol tables from a Mumbai resident who arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport from Singapore on January 31, 2011. Officers apprehended the suspect, Yusuf Masalawala, 54, while evading customs by going through the “green channel,” which indicates no customs declaration. Customs officials said that no medicine conveyed without declaration is allowed…
The United States Attorney’s Office has indicted eleven Dominicans involved in a criminal conspiracy to threaten and extort money from American internet pharmacy customers by impersonating government agents. Investigators received over 1,000 complaints from American victims who paid imposters hundreds of thousands of dollars as so-called “fines” to prevent prosecution for purchasing drugs without a…