The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it has made significant progress in the battle against counterfeit prescription drugs.
In its annual update to the Combating Counterfeit Drugs report, released last week, the agency reported on developments in several initiatives aimed at protecting the safety and integrity of the U.S. drug supply.
In 2004, the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations initiated 58 counterfeit drug investigations involving hundreds of thousands of fake dosage units. This is a dramatic rise from the 30 cases in 2003 and is partially due to heightened vigilance and awareness by all parties in the drug distribution system following the FDA’s original report in 2004, says the agency.
In addition, it maintains that more effective coordination with other state, federal and foreign law enforcement agencies and improved communication with drugmakers also contributed in large part to the increase.
There also has been great progress towards development and implementation of a standard electronic track-and-trace system using radio-frequency identification (RFID) for widespread use in the drug distribution system, according to the FDA. And significant advances are also being made in developing an electronic pedigree (chain of custody) for drugs, it said.
Read the rest of this article on the FDA’s battle against fake drugs.
fake drugs
fake drugs
International Council of Nurses Launches a Global Anti-counterfeit Campaign
Geneva, 11 May 2005 - Nurses worldwide are using the occasion of International Nurses Day to draw attention to the dramatic increase of counterfeit medicines in today’s global market. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in ten medicines sold worldwide is fake, with no medical effect whatsoever. In developing countries, up to 25% of the medicines used are counterfeit or substandard. Some estimates place the annual earnings from counterfeit medicines at over US $32 billion globally. 1
Counterfeiting is not only costly to consumers, it is a particularly serious area of crime because it puts the lives and well-being of patients at risk, leads to loss of confidence in the healthcare professions and in the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicines they prescribe.
Counterfeit medicines can kill. In 1992, 233 Bangladeshi children died after taking a paracetamol-based syrup that was tainted with antifreeze. In 1995, 2,500 children in Niger died after taking a fake meningitis vaccination. Of the one million deaths that occur from malaria annually, as many as 200,000 would be avoidable if the medicines available were effective, of good quality and used correctly.
“Patients and consumers are the primary victims of counterfeit medicines. In order to protect them from the harmful effects of counterfeit medicines it is necessary to provide them with appropriate information and education on the consequences of counterfeit medicines,” says Christine Hancock, President of the International Council of Nurses. “As frontline health care providers, nurses are key players in increased vigilance for counterfeit medicines and increased reporting of possible counterfeit drugs.”
Read the rest of this press release here.
counterfeit medicines
counterfeit medicines
