SafeMeds: Mississippi Stores Selling Counterfeit Drugs Raided

Operation Knock Out Knock Offs- A law enforcement partnership in Mississippi between federal, state and local officials, yields approximately 30 federal search warrants in search of counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

According to a press release from the Mississippi’s Attorney General’s Office and a blog post in SafeMeds:

• On November 18, a team of nearly 100 law enforcement agents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office-Northern and Southern Districts (MS), the Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Food and Drug Administration and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, participated in raids via Mississippi’s Operation Knock Out Knock-Offs Task Force.

• "[The raids are] a key example of how Operation Knock Out Knock-Offs is working in Mississippi," said Attorney General Jim Hood. "By partnering with federal and local officials, we can help protect consumers from dangerous fakes."

• The first part of the operation focused on creating the state task force and the second phase centered around educating consumers and vendors about the dangers of counterfeit drugs. The operation received additional federal funding in October and will continue into next year.

• "We are just getting started," said Hood. "Counterfeiters are on notice that we mean business."

• From February 2010 to November 2010 undercover agents made dozens of purchases of counterfeit drugs at “convenience type businesses” throughout the Magnolia State. These counterfeit drugs reportedly included fake pain killers, antibiotics and birth control medication along with supplements not approved for sale in America.

• "Unapproved, uncleared, or misbranded products pose a clear and present danger to the public health," said David W. Bourne, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office. "We will continue to join with our law enforcement counterparts to aggressively pursue those who place consumers at risk for their own financial gain."

• "The smuggling of substandard, tainted or counterfeit products violates U.S. laws and regulations and threatens public health and safety," said, Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., special agent in charge of the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office in New Orleans. "Our ability to work together across the federal government and with agencies around the world is a strong and appropriate response to a growing international threat."

The deadly criminal phenomenon of counterfeit medications is not limited to underdeveloped countries. These products exist, have significant consequence to the consumer and have the ability to become part of the legitimate supply chain.

All members of the legitimate supply chain must proactively protect their inventories and customers from these lethal fakes.

To read the entire SafeMeds post, visit: http://www.safemedicines.org/2010/11/mississippi-stores-selling-counterfeit-drugs-raided-51.html

To learn more about anti-counterfeiting technologies, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/.

ICE, CBP, IPR Center Recognized for Outstanding Work in Trademark Protection

$272.7 million in counterfeits seized in 2008

Yesterday, Proctor and Gamble presented awards to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) for the successful partnership to further protect the company's trademark.

Companies are teaming with ICE and CBP in a united front against rampant counterfeiting. These agencies seized a variety of counterfeit goods with a market value of $272.7 million in 2008. This was an increase in seizures of 38 percent over seizures in 2007.

The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center is the largest investigative arm of Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and targets those who manufacture, smuggle and distribute counterfeit and substandard products that put our citizens at risk.

We applaud those involved in this taskforce which include agents and analysts from ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the FBI, who coordinate the U.S. government’s domestic and international law enforcement attack on IPR violations.

To learn more about IPR Center visit the ICE website at http://www.ice.gov.

Counterfeit Drugs – The Silent Killer of Our Time?

Don’t do the Crime unless you can do the Time – At least that is how the saying goes. But what kind of deterrent is a relatively short sentence vs. the potential loss of thousands of lives?

Recently Mr. Kevin Xu, a known counterfeiter from China was sentenced for his role in a massive plan to distribute counterfeit drugs here in the United States.

He sold counterfeit drugs to U.S. citizens via the Internet. The income from the sales in the U.S. in 2007 totaled $232,568.

His next step was to make inroads into the legitimate supply chain. In negotiations with undercover agents he thought were potential buyers, he listed 25 drugs he could manufacture. These medications included Tamiflu, Plavix, Zyprexa, Aricept and Casodex. What’s more, the samples he provided to “the buyers” looked identical to the real pills.

His plan was ultimately foiled by the undercover agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA).

In their investigation, agents also learned that Xu distributed counterfeit pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom which had penetrated the legitimate supply chain in London, and prompted a massive recall for Zyprexa, Plavix and Casodex by the Medicines Health and Regulatory Agency in London, England.

Xu received more than $1.5 million from selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals globally in 2007 alone, yet his sentence was only 6 ½ years!