Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Largest European Seizure: Two Million Counterfeit Pills Seized in Brussels Airport

Two million counterfeit pills have been seized in Brussels Airport. The seizure of the drugs which originated in Mumbai, Indian and were bound for West Africa is the largest confiscation of counterfeit medicine in Europe.

The three Indian shipments contained counterfeit pharmaceuticals labeled as Tramal, a painkiller, and Fansidar, an anti-malaria drug.

Africa already has the daunting task of trying to control its malaria outbreaks without further obstacles of fake treatments. Many countries, organizations, and businesses have been aiding Africa to fight malaria and therefore, counterfeit medicine is a real threat to their work. In some countries up to 60% of anti-malaria drugs are fake and are aiding in the drugs resistance to current therapies.

Furthermore, the biggest victims are the children, because according to the Worlds Health Organization (WHO) a majority of malaria deaths are children under the age of five and Fasidar is one of the drugs given to pregnant women for the prevention of malaria.

The scope and intent of this particular case leads us to ask – Is any medication safe? How can we protect our most vulnerable medications? We believe the answer can be found in pharmaceutical authentication which verifies the drug itself. With nothing added and nothing destroyed; the method can be programmed to test various oral medications.

To learn more of this fascinating technology, see XStream Systems website at http://www.xstreamsystems.net/products.html.

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