ICE Shuts Down 67 Fake Online Pharmacy Websites For Selling Counterfeit Drugs

Website visitors now see a seizure banner displaying in place of the fake drug advertisements The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that 67 different domain names for commercial websites “engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit and prescription drugs” have had seizure orders executed against them by U.S. Immigration and Customs…

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Pakistani Head of Counterfeit Drug Importer Extradited and Indicted in U.S. Court

Junaid Qadir of Karachi, Pakistan, was originally indicted in 2012. A superseding indictment was obtained June 25, 2015. He was arrested last spring after he traveled from Pakistan to Germany. Qadir fought extradition, but lost and appeared in federal court on Jan. 25, 2016. Qadir and his brother, Shehzad, who is not in custody, are…

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Rogues Gallery Comics: An Illustrated Guide To Counterfeit Drug Crime

The Rogues Gallery Comic Book series tells the real-life stories of fake drug criminals and their cases. Volume one tells about the Greedy Doctor that lied to patients with no hope for a cure, the Master Counterfeiter whose greed drove him straight into the arms of US investigators, the Black Marketer who sold fake drugs to US doctors, and the mystery Criminal Mastermind responsible for introducing counterfeit cancer medication to U.S. oncology practices. In volume two, you’ll read about The Smooth Talker and his $150,000 car, the Canadian who pioneered the fake online pharmacy business model, and the Hero Nurses that stood between oncology patients and dangerous fake medications.

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INTERPOL-Led Sting Operation Shuts Down Over 9,600 Illegal Internet Pharmacies, Seizes $41 Million in Fake, Dangerous or Unapproved Drugs

PSM’s Member PSI Aids Investigators in Largest Global Operation of its Kind Washington, D.C. (June 27, 2013) – The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) applauds INTERPOL and the nearly 100 countries who took part in Operation Pangea VI, the largest global sting operation to date targeting the online sale of illegal prescription medicines. One of PSM’s…

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New Research Highlights Risks of Unlicensed Online Pharmacies

A new study
in the May 2013 Journal of Medical Internet Research illustrates just
how easy it is for fake online pharmacies to advertise via social media outlets
such as Facebook and Twitter.

Researcher Tim Mackey and co-author Dr. Bryan
Liang
set up dummy, no-prescription-required pharmacy websites, then created
advertising for the dummy sites on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and
Google+. They found that in the 10
months that their fake ads were running, close to 3,000 unique visitors went to
the dummy sites in search of drugs that required no prescription.  Surprisingly, though they had visits from all
over the globe, the highest percentage of web traffic to their fake sites (54%)
came from the United States.  

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New Internet Domain Name .PHARMACY Will Foster Patient Safety

In light of the threat of illegal online pharmacies, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) announced their application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to own and operate a secure and vetted .PHARMACY domain for licensed Internet pharmacies.

The April 2013 report from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) illustrates the patient safety threat from illegal online pharmacies by showing that of more than 10,000 Web sites they analyzed, nearly 97% operate out of compliance with pharmacy laws and practice standards established in the US. To combat that threat, they have announced their application to ICANN for .PHARMACY, which will be available only to legally operating online pharmacies, who follow the rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which they are based.

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UK Paramedic Dies of Accidental Overdose of Drugs Sold Through Foreign Online Pharmacy

The death of a London paramedic has been ruled accidental after she ingested a fatal dose of pills purchased from a foreign online pharmacy.

Lorna Lambden, 27, a paramedic and Masters Degree student at the University of Hertfordshire, was found dead in her home on December 17, 2010, after ingesting pills purchased over the internet without a prescription, reports the Daily Mail.

The coroner, Edward Thomas, found a fatal level of the drug amitriptyline in her blood. Thomas added that the medication had not been prescribed to Lambden, but suspected she purchased an equivalent called “amitrip” from a foreign internet-based pharmacy.

Said Thomas, “…four milligrams [worth of amitriptyline were] found in her blood, and a therapeutic level is about one milligram.” He went on to say that after taking the drug she collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrhythmia, reports the St. Albans Review.

Lambden’s family knew that she had trouble sleeping and suspect she purchased the medication to rest between twelve hour shifts with the London Ambulance Service, reports the London Metro.

Lambden’s mother, a retired accident and emergency sister, said: “It’s terrible that these drugs are so freely available online and people can buy them without seeing any warnings about the harm they can do.”

Coroner Thomas said: “Amitriptyline can stop the heart and I think that is likely here. Lorna would not have known it had happened. It would not have been like a heart attack.”

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Doctor Pleads Guilty in Online Prescription Fraud Case, Loses License

A Grand Forks, North Dakota doctor has pled guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. His counsel says that he client didn’t know he was breaking the law and even paid taxes on his earnings. Authorities say Enrique Rivera Mass, 56, illegally signed off on prescriptions for nearly 1.8 million pills…

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