Dubai Seizes 7 million Counterfeit Pills in a Private Company Warehouse

Zawya.com reports about a press conference held on May 31st by Dubai Customs announcing a seizure of a large amount of counterfeit medicine in a warehouse of a registered local company at the Dry Port in Dubai.

The seizure of 7 million counterfeit pills of different medication is considered one of the largest seizures in the region.

According to Zawya.com:

· H.E. Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation and Dubai Customs Director General issued a statement during a media conference.

· H.E. Ahmed Butti Ahmed clarified in the statement that the seized medicine is locally prohibited as approved by the tests conducted on its samples and is of counterfeited sexual supplements which bear trademarks of international companies.

· The case is considered an infringement of legal protection of the companies owning such trademarks and a clear violation of the UAE health legislations which prevents selling this medicine unless a medical prescription is issued by a licensed human doctor- as per the ministerial decisions issued under the law of pharmacy profession and pharmaceutical institutions.

· H.E. Ahmed Butti Ahmed said that the investigations conducted by Dubai Customs revealed that an employee working in the implicated company stored the medicine after receiving it from an Arab trader. He kept the haul on a quay at the Dry Port Customs Centre which belongs to the referred company, without notifying the manager of the company who was outside the UAE, in exchange of AED 3000 a month.

· H.E. Dubai Customs Director General expressed his appreciation to the Customs Intelligence employees for the proper handling of the information they received about this counterfeited medicine which played a major role in seizing it. He also praised Customs inspectors for their vigilance as they work night and day to secure the country and the great role of the IPR Department at Dubai Customs in this regard.

To read the entire story on Zawya.com, visit:

http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20100531105654/Dubai%20Customs%20seizes%207%20million%20counterfeit%20pills%20in%20a%20private%20company%20warehouse%20in%20Dry%20Port.

This large seizure shows the vulnerability of the international pharmaceutical supply chain and the various nefarious entities that are impacted by this criminal act.

Secure Pharma Chain Blog endorses that all members of the pharmaceutical supply chain use of authentication technologies to protect and verify their inventories and protect health care consumers.

To learn more about pharmaceutical supply chain solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/.

FDA Accelerating Stricter Enforcement Campaign

The Food and Drug Administration in the past several months has employed a broad array of tools-consent decree, drug seizures and 68 warning letters about products used to treat influenza A (H1N1) in its efforts to accelerate its stricter enforcement campaign within the pharmaceutical industry according to Edwin Rivera-Martinez, Chief of the International Compliance Branch in CDER Division of Manufacturing and Compliance.

To view article visit: www.fdanews.com.

Egypt Seizes Large Amount Of Suspected Fake Drugs

Reported by Dow Jones last week: Egyptian authorities seized a large amount of suspected counterfeit drugs from a warehouse in Egypt and have one of the key individuals responsible in custody.

The seizure of counterfeit drugs used to treat conditions such as diabetes and cancer were part of Egypt’s crackdown on the distribution of spurious medicines, which is on the increase in the region. The head of Egypt's anti-fraud General Mustafa Amr stated to Dow Jones reporters that the counterfeit drugs found in the raid had originated in China and arrived in Egypt after passing through Syria. The individual arrested was a Jordanian residing in Egypt.

A Pfizer spokesman stated that they had been informed of the raid and added that 21,000 pills of suspected fake Dostinex were seized in the raids. The brand drug Dostinex is manufactured by Pfizer for the treatment of hyperprolactinaemia, which is the presence of abnormally high levels of the hormone prolactin in the blood.

Note: According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 7% of all counterfeit pharmaceuticals distributed globally are thought to originate in Egypt.

Are Counterfeit Medicines on the Rise?

The prevalence of counterfeit medicines has often been thought as rare in developed countries. This view is changing and changing fast as seizures of counterfeits are on the rise overseas and here in the United States, but perhaps most alarming is the rate of which they are increasing as portrayed in a recent article in Bloomberg News.

According to Pharmaceutical Security Institute, an organization of 26 drug makers, seizures of counterfeits jumped 24 percent in 2007, which amounted to 403 different fake medications confiscated in 99 countries in 1,513 incidents.

Troubling is the fact that copies of 19 of the world’s 25 best-selling medications are among those seized by industry security, customs agents and police last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

These trends emphasize a need to strengthen our security measures here in the U.S. against an emerging sophisticated criminal element, which seeks to profit at the expense of our health.

We must take a proactive approach to secure our supply chain and most importantly protect our consumers!