Fake Generic Drugs Are Creating Serious Dangers for Consumers
Dih Tsai, after 4 years of observing mail for the U.S. Customs Office, had the feeling that the package marked "generic Tamiflu" contained fake medicines. A preliminary check was enough to confirm that there were no generic versions of the drug. Together with his colleagues, Tsai was the first to uncover in the San Francisco customs office shipments of counterfeit Tamiflu.
New York, NY (PRWEB) March 21, 2006 -- Dih Tsai, after 4 years of observing mail for the U.S. Customs Office, had the feeling that the package marked "generic Tamiflu" contained fake medicines. A preliminary check was enough to confirm that there were no generic versions of the drug. Together with his colleagues, Tsai was the first to uncover in the San Francisco customs office shipments of counterfeit Tamiflu.
The medication is being stored to treat bird flu to prevent the disease become a pandemic.
Tamiflu's manufacturer, a Swiss company Roche of Basel, is working with regulators to stop bogus versions sold via Internet sites from flooding the US. According to the WHO in Geneva, the producers of medications are also hiring undercover agents, tracing technologies and employing lobbyists to fight increasing sales of all types of counterfeit medications generating now about $32 billion annually in revenue and threatening lives.
"This is a very scary trend," said Aaron Graham, vice president of corporate security at Purdue Pharma, located in Stamford, Connecticut. The outbreak of bird flu has incredibly increased demand for Tamiflu and helped create a powerful market for counterfeiters. Since late 2003, the virus has killed minimum 98 of 177 people infected.
Roche announced on Friday that production of Tamiflu will be increased by 33% by the end of the year. The firm is aware that counterfeiters are targeting the product due to the higher demand for bird-flu medications.
"We're looking at isolated incidences of counterfeit Tamiflu at this stage, but we're collaborating very closely with the authorities," said David Reddy, leader of Roche's influenza pandemic task force. Medication counterfeiting is a rising peril beyond Tamiflu.
According to Graham, a former senior special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, an increase in fake drugs for high cholesterol, hypertension and obesity also appeared. Fake medications often include incorrect or non-active ingredients, or the wrong amount of medication. Sometimes they are made by unlicensed producers.
In 2004, Britain discovered counterfeit versions of Reductil, an obesity medication produced by Abbott Laboratories, and copies of Cialis, an impotence drug made by Eli Lilly. One year earlier, phony shipments of Lipitor, the cholesterol drug from Pfizer, were found in the pharmacies in the US.
According to the district attorney's office of New York County, undercover agents purchased bogus Viagra, the impotence medication made by Pfizer, for prices varying from 50 cents to more than $6 a pill. Usually the pills cost about $10 each.
Harvey Bale, head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations in Geneva said, that the growth of online drugstores has created an opportunity for fake drugs as customers often do not know whom they are buying from. According to Jupitermedia, a research company located in Connecticut, sales of prescription drugs via Internet may increase to $13.8 billion next year from $3.2 billion in 2003.
The bogus Tamiflu that Tsai intercepted in San Francisco was being transported from Asia to patients who ordered it online, said Roxanne Hercules, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
According to a study by the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, based in Vienna, Virginia, established in 2002 by the security directors of 14 drug producers, last year seizures of phony medications increased 40%, with Russia overtaking China for the first time as the country with the highest number of confiscations.
Jim Christian, global head of security for Novartis said, that the European Union has become more vulnerable to counterfeiting since the accession of the new countries bordering Russia. Shipments are also growing as governments crack down on smuggling of illegal medications like heroin and cocaine, said Christian, who spent 20 years in the U.S. Secret Service.
"The counterfeiting of drugs is a great way to make a lot of money," Christian said. "With illicit drugs, you could get killed or sentenced to jail for the rest of your life. With counterfeit medicines, there's little chance of getting killed, and if you get caught, the sentence will be light since the issue just hasn't been taken that seriously in many countries."
According to Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline in London, existing laws concerning phony medications are imperfect, and the industry is working on getting the crime recognized as a serious offense.
"The law needs to recognize this as a new crime and deal with it," Garnier said.
The most stringent sentences in Europe for trademark infringement have Britain and Hungary, with punishments of 6 years or more in jail. According to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations in Brussels, guidelines for fines range from more than 500,000, or $604,000, in France, Finland and Portugal, to 2,000 in other countries.
Under American law, counterfeiting the label for a prescription medications is illegal and punishable by as much as 10 years in prison, while illegally copying the medication itself carries a maximum sentence of three years.
Online Pharmacy -- PharmacyCenter.org is the online drugstore for FDA approved prescription medications by means of free online Internet consultation. Our offer includes most popular medicines available through online ordering.
# # #
Post Comment:
Trackback URL: http://www.prweb.com/pingpr.php/TG92ZS1JbnNlLVNpbmctVGhpci1IYWxmLVplcm8=
Bookmark -
Del.icio.us |
Furl It |
Technorati |
Ask |
MyWeb |
Propeller |
Live Bookmarks |
Newsvine |
TailRank |
Reddit |
Slashdot |
Digg |
Stumbleupon |
Google Bookmarks |
Sphere |
Blink It |
Spurl
|
