As is true for so much illegal activity anywhere in the world, the fact that huge profits can be made by manufacturing and/or moving counterfeit and adulterated drugs is the reason it is a growing problem in the United States.
For drugs that are manufactured in this country, the route to the patient is circuitous. They may be stolen from a warehouse, or purchased at almost no cost from a patient who has been given that drug for free, or who used only a co-pay to obtain it. Or they may be manufactured by a bogus company that created a look-alike to a real drug with no real drug ingredients.
They then get relabeled or diluted or adulterated in some way before being sold to a distributor who sells to another distributor who sells to another one. Eventually they will get sold to a pharmacy.
From the largest drug stores and big-box chains with in-store pharmacies, to mail-order prescription distributors, to neighborhood pharmacies located on small-town street corners, all companies are in business to make money. If pharmacies can purchase the drugs they will resell from one distributor at a lower cost than from another distributor, that is what they will do. It’s good business.
Read more about how counterfeit drugs make their way into pharmacies.
counterfeit drugs
counterfeit drugs
Stopping the flow of bogus drugs into the legal American drug supply is a daunting task. Predicting how criminals think and how to stop them is frustrating at best. The cost of the chase is expensive.
Efforts on the part of the FDA are stalled. As of Spring 2008, the only government activity is found at the state level, most noticeably in California.
In 2005, Katherine Eban, author of Dangerous Doses, testified before the U.S. Congress on the issue of counterfeit drugs and their distribution inside U.S. borders. Frighteningly, there was so much denial of the real issues, that Representative Gil Butknecht (R-MN) proclaimed that he didn’t understand what the problem was; in fact, he declared the counterfeiters themselves to be entrepreneurs.
In 2004, the FDA declared it would begin requiring an “pedigree” for every legal drug, a way of tracking drugs as they leave the manufacturer and make their way through the distribution and warehousing systems, to the pharmacist. According to Eban, the warehousing companies objected, filed lawsuits, and the mandate continues to be tied up in court as of Spring 2008. Little or no progress has been made in the interim.
Read the rest of this article here.
counterfeit drugs
counterfeit drugs
Can you answer YES to any of these questions?
- Does your doctor prescribe a drug for you that addresses an ongoing medical problem (like high blood pressure, cholesterol or GERD)?
- Does your doctor prescribe, or do you receive as an injectable or infused drug for a specialized disease such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease or any other drug that is very expensive (even if it is your insurance or Medicare that pays for it)?
- Does your doctor prescribe any expensive drug for you in any form of tablet, caplet, gelcap?
- Do you take any lifestyle drugs, like Viagra, or sleep drugs like Ambien?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions (or if a friend or loved one might answer yes) then you may have already been a victim of counterfeit drugs, or you may be victimized in the future.
The only good news is that there is a growing awareness of this problem. Everything else is not just bad news, it’s absolutely frightening.
Most of us think the term “counterfeit drug” must describe drugs that are being manufactured and ordered from outside the country where the US can’t guarantee their purity. In fact, that describes only some counterfeits. This article describes the counterfeiting that is a thriving business inside our borders, often with drugs that are manufactured by American pharmaceutical companies, and may have already sickened hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Read the rest of this article on counterfeit drugs.
counterfeit drugs
counterfeit drugs
