COUNTERFEIT drugs

Pfizer have done their best to scare the hell out of everyone with a press release on counterfeit drugs today, read it here. In fairness counterfeit drugs are a huge problem, especially in the developing world. Arguably, the big pharmaceutical companies could do a lot more by allowing generic versions be sold cheaper to poorer communities. In the latest Pfizer release the demand for prescription 'lifestyle' drugs, such as Viagra, has helped to fuel the counterfeit trade. Presumably this is the same demand they helped to create. In the past Ireland has had consignments of fake toothpaste and condoms ending up on the market. Anyway, don't buy drugs off the internet, 90 per cent of which are fake, according to the World Health Organisation. Check out Pfizer's ad on counterfeit drugs here and read my previous posts on counterfeit medicine.

FAKE drugs

There is a serious safety factor to Pfizer's investigation against the Mills family who are accused of selling counterfeit drugs over the internet (see yesterday's post). In February at the Toronto Police Fraud Squad conference, Lorne Lipkus, a lawyer specialising in counterfeiting, spoke about several deaths caused by counterfeit drugs. With Viagra and Cialis the danger is caused by too much of the active ingredient which can cause heart attacks. There have also been a number of documented cases in which fatalities were caused by counterfeit drugs such as in the 1990s in which 119 children died in India and Haiti after being treated with toxic cough syrup. In Niger 2,500 people died after 50,000 meningitis vaccine doses were supplied to the country.
Last year Ireland's EU Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, said the EU saw "massive diversification" in the number of counterfeit products. In 2007 the EU reported a 50 per cent increase in the number of counterfeit items that threaten human health, such as fake cigarettes, Viagra and food being removed from sale. Four million packges of fake drugs were also seized at the borders of the EU. The World Health Organisation expects the global market in counterfeit drugs to be worth €70 billion next year. Make sure you know where that magic pill came from.

BITTER pill

High Court cases in both Ireland and the UK last week provided an insight into the global scale of the counterfeit drugs trade. Drugs giant Pfizer got a court order after claiming British national Andrew Mills, also known as Butcher, was behind an internet-based operation selling allegedly Chinese-made drugs. As a result a raid was carried out on his house in County Monaghan, Ireland, to seize various materials. Pfizer claim Mills and his parents were selling drugs over the internet for the last three years with a minimum estimated annual turnover of stg£465,000. The High Court in London is expected to hear a case against the three members of the Mills family.