Counterfeit Drugs - From Organized Crime to Neighborhood Pharmacies
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.
