IPS: Fake Medicines May Kill a Million a Year

Central and Eastern Europe is facing "significant challenges" in combating a multi-billion euro, and often lethal, trade in fake medicines, security and pharmaceutical groups have warned.

Pavol Strancansky writes a disturbing if not interesting story about the size, scope and danger of counterfeit medication in Europe for the Inter Press Service. The story is full of insider insight and current statistics.

Included in Mr. Strancansky’s story:

• Millions of counterfeit tablets and medicines, some of them containing lethal heavy metals, are smuggled annually. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 50 percent of medicines sold online are fake.

• But while some Eastern European states have brought in strict laws and procedures to fight fake medicine smugglers, criminals in the region are thought to be working with international gangs in neighbouring states to bring contraband medicines into the EU.

• Gabriel Turcu, partner at the European anti-counterfeiting organisation REACT, told IPS: "It has been shown that there are people in Central and Eastern European EU member states working with organised gangs in neighbouring countries to bring counterfeit medicines into the European Union and westwards. This is a significant challenge for the region."

• Just like the drug and people trafficking trade, the counterfeit medicine industry is estimated to be worth tens of billions of euros per year for crime gangs, and is mushrooming every year.

• The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated that this year the illegal market in counterfeit medicines will provide more than 75 billion euros in revenues for smugglers -- a rise of 92 percent on 2005.

• Police forces say that fake medicines, sometimes so well-prepared and packaged that they can fool even healthcare professionals, are being shipped out by crooks in the same illegal consignments as narcotics. Gangs then sell them on to unscrupulous medicine wholesalers or direct to the public online.

• Health experts estimate that fake medicines -- made from anything from crushed brick to arsenic -- cause up to one million deaths a year, and the UN has said they are contributing to growing drug resistance.

• India and China are thought to be the main source countries for the fake medicines, but customs officers in central and Eastern Europe have said that they are being brought into Europe on the same smuggling routes used for narcotics and people -- through Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

• Pfizer issued a report earlier this year saying that the market in counterfeit medicines in Europe is worth an estimated 10.5 billion euros annually, with people in Italy and Germany spending the most on what later turn out to be fake medicines -- an estimated 3.6 billion and 2.7 billion euros respectively.

• EU officials have said that in a two-month period last year 34 million fake tablets were seized by customs officials while the Council of Europe says that in some parts of Europe fake medicines make up between six and 20 percent of the market.

• Public awareness of the risks of counterfeit medicines is also low, according to research.

• While punishments for drug running and people smuggling are severe and risks high, those for counterfeit medicines are generally far less. In some countries production and selling of counterfeit medicines is not considered a crime and in many Western states it was until relatively recently viewed legally as being on a par with trading in fake branded clothes.

• Turcu, who last week attended a special conference in Bucharest which brought together country representatives and law enforcement officials from across the region to discuss the threat of counterfeit medicines, told IPS: "What is needed is a directive from the EU making it mandatory for countries at national level to qualify counterfeiting as a crime and counterfeiting that harms people as a serious crime."

Along with regulatory action, public awareness and action by industry leaders and members of the pharmaceutical supply chain are crucial in eradicating this very serious, potentially lethal crime.

To read the entire IPS story, visit: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53318

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

The Economist: Fake Drugs

Counterfeit drugs used to be a problem for poor countries. Now they threaten the rich world, too.

In the September 2nd edition of The Economist, they have an excellent piece on the issue of counterfeit drugs.

The Economist story focuses on updated statistics, industry insight, on how globally there is lax regulatory enforcement/punishment and how this deadly crime is impacting health care outside of the third world.

Highlighted in The Economist:

· Drug smugglers can expect harsh penalties nearly everywhere—if the drugs in question are heroin or cocaine. Those who smuggle counterfeit medicines, by contrast, have often faced lax enforcement and light punishment. Some governments deem drug-counterfeiting a trivial offence, little more than a common irritant.

· The pharmaceutical industry has persuaded several governments to stiffen regulations against fake drugs and to conduct more aggressive raids (see chart). Companies are also devising novel technologies to outfox the criminals. Even the Catholic church is joining the cause, issuing a stern statement in August that it is in “the best interest of all concerned that smuggling of counterfeit drugs be fought against”.

· Counterfeit drugs can kill. Studies of anti-infective treatments in Africa and South-East Asia have found that perhaps 15-30% are fakes. The UN estimates that roughly half of the anti-malarial drugs sold in Africa—worth some $438m a year—are counterfeits.

· Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC, cautions that any such estimates should be treated with care. The countries with the most fakes may not be cracking down, so official figures will look rosy; in contrast, countries with a smaller counterfeit trade that are vigilant may end up with more seizures. The World Health Organization agrees, and has recently taken its estimates off its website. Even so, Mr Bate says his field work has convinced him that counterfeits kill at least 100,000 people a year, mostly in the poor world.

· Now it appears that fakes are taking off in the rich world too. Yes, Viagra still tops the list of knock-offs seen by Pfizer, says John Clark, the American drug firm’s global head of security; but fake versions of at least 20 of its products (including Lipitor, a blockbuster cholesterol drug) have been detected in the legitimate supply chains of at least 44 countries. Mr Clark’s intelligence comes from Pfizer’s global network of informants, consumer tip-offs and in-store inspections. He sees worrying trends.

· Counterfeiters used to operate chiefly in developing countries, says Mr Clark, but now his firm sees fakes coming from such rich and well-regulated places as Canada and Britain. And the crooks are growing more technologically sophisticated: some can even counterfeit the holograms on packets that are meant to reassure customers that pills are genuine.

· A consumer study funded by Pfizer recently found that nearly a fifth of Europeans polled in 14 countries had obtained medicines through illicit channels. That, the firm reckons, makes for a grey market in the EU of over €10 billion ($12.8 billion). Terry Hisey of Deloitte, a consultancy, thinks the global market for fakes could be worth between $75 billion and $200 billion a year. Those staggering sums, he argues, help explain the emergence of a flurry of new technologies and companies hoping to help the drugs industry “secure its global supply chain”.

The Economist outlines several technologies used in the fight against counterfeit drugs but comments:

· Thomas Kubic of the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, an industry-funded outfit, gives warning that this war will be hard to win. After more than 30 years as an investigator, he is sure that crooks will eventually find a way around any defence.

· Even so, he thinks novel approaches such as mobile-based validation may “harden the target”, just as a burglar alarm makes your home somewhat trickier to rob. If the cost and complexity of faking drugs goes up, crooks may choose to fake Gucci handbags instead. This would still be theft, not to mention a crime against fashion. But it will not kill anyone.

Secure Pharma Chain endorses the concept of a multiple layered approach of deploying technologies to protect the global supply chain.

As this article points out the professional counterfeiter can fake nearly all overt methods of labeling or tracking the packaging which is why Secure Pharma Chain thinks that authentication, the actual testing of the material inside the container should be the centerpiece of a robust, layered approach to make certain that the medications are genuine.

Authentication technologies have advanced to the point that they can verify products inside their sealed container without destroying the packaging or degrading the contents.

Knowing what is inside the box is crucial in protecting consumers from this deadly criminal act.

To read the entire, excellent article, visit: http://www.economist.com/node/16943895?story_id=16943895&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe.

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

China News: UN Concerned About Clandestine Drugs Manufacturing in Guinea

In an article which appeared in chinanews.cn on August 5th, the United Nations is quoted as voicing concern over evidence recently uncovered in Guinea, suggesting that clandestine narcotics operations are producing illicit drugs on a large scale in the small West African country.

Here are some of the significant points from the UN:

• UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol, investigated a haul of chemicals seized by government forces in mid-July, revealed quantities far in excess of the legitimate demands of the country.


• "Among the evidence -- the best found by the UN in West Africa to date -- were tools for making counterfeit antibiotics, substances used to produce ecstasy, and solvents commonly used in cocaine and heroin processing," Montas said.

The UNODC launched an initiative last month to tackle the scourge in the region, which sees 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of cocaine pass through its borders annually.

To read the report online: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/06/content_11834912.htm