Protect Yourself From Counterfeit Drugs
Counterfeit drugs are a rampant threat that easily cross boarders and target innocent people. You can learn about this threat by visiting the Pharmaceutical Security Institute. But how can you protect yourself from contaminated or counterfeit drugs finding their way into your medicine cabinet?
This month, the Partnership for Safe Medicines launched a new section of our Web site—Consumer Resources. A new, comprehensive consumer information portal, this online resource can help you learn more about the threats endangering the safety of our prescriptions and how to minimize your risk of getting a counterfeit drug. Additionally, Consumer Resources offers tips for making safe online drug purchases and the warning signs associated with rogue online pharmacies. You can also discover how to save money on prescription drugs and spot the signs of a contaminated or counterfeit drug.
Armed with this information, you can better ensure the safety of your medications you purchase, whether they are from a VIPPS online pharmacy or your neighborhood drug store. To learn more, please visit SafeMedicines.org.
Congress Joins the Battle Against Counterfeit Drugs
One of the ways our government combats the sale of unsafe or substandard products—like counterfeit drugs—is through the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) laws. September marked a milestone in this fight as Congress passed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act of 2008 (S. 3225).
Signed into law last week, the PRO-IP Act is the most comprehensive IP enforcement legislation adopted by Congress in years. Not only does it increase the penalties for counterfeiting offenses that endanger public health and safety, it provides much-needed resources to at federal, state and local law enforcement levels. Additionally, the law creates the position of Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator within the Executive Office of the President. This new coordinator will chair an inter-agency committee charged with producing a Joint Strategic Plan to combat piracy and counterfeiting. The law also allocates money to hire and train new federal prosecutors, as well as requires the Attorney General to develop a comprehensive plan to prosecute the international organized crime behind the counterfeiting.
As transnational criminal organizations continue to ignore regulations and violate laws designed to insure the integrity of the many life-saving medicines widely available here in the United States, this new law sends a clear message that the production and sale of counterfeit drugs will not be tolerated.
Connecting Counterfeit Drugs to Fashion Fakes
What do a designer handbag and a prescription medication have in common? At first glance—absolutely nothing, except that they are both BIG business for counterfeiters. You’ve heard us expound how damaging counterfeit drugs are to both consumers and global public health, but what you might not know is that buying a knock-off purse can be just as damaging.
In its "Fakes Are Never in Fashion” campaign, Harper’s Bazaar magazine is showing its readers how the damage caused by the sale of counterfeit luxury goods extends beyond the financial implications on legitimate business industries. The illicit, counterfeit trade network is an unregulated, global industry run by multinational criminal organizations. Its estimated $600 billion annual sales counterfeit goods is often directly linked with child labor, drug trafficking, and even terrorism, and the “Fakes Are Never in Fashion” campaign explains that every year 750,000 jobs lost due to intellectual property theft in the United States alone.
Like the Partnership for Safe Medicines, the “Fakes Are Never in Fashion” campaign aims to make people aware of the dangers of counterfeit goods. Whether a counterfeiter produces a designer handbag or prescription medication – the effect can be felt all across the globe.
Counterfeit Drugs and Baby Formula
Four infants are dead and more than 54,000 children in China have suffered from kidney stones and kidney failure this past year as a result of baby formula and powdered milk tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics, glue and is found in pesticides. The toxin found its way into the milk products from more than 30 Chinese companies because of its ability to make the milk appear high in protein.
According to the Wall Street Journal, around two dozen countries and the 27-member European Union have banned or recalled Chinese milk and other products made with it. Among the products involved are those made in China by major multinational firms for sale around Asia—including Nestle milk, Heinz baby cereal, Nabisco Oreos and Ritz, Cadbury chocolate, M&Ms and Snickers from Mars and several batches of Lipton powdered teas made by Unilever.
In the United States, the FDA has issued alerts warning consumer not to consume White Rabbit Creamy Candy or the Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea products found in many ethnic stores. However, one of the more disturbing elements of the story is that Chinese government and corporate officials tried to conceal the contamination after receiving their first complaint in December 2007.
As incidents of food, drug and other household product contamination become increasingly apparent across the globe, the Partnership for Safe Medicines is leading the effort to educate the public of the dangers of contaminated or counterfeit drugs. This type of health-threatening behavior exemplifies why consumers need to take an active role in the fight against counterfeit drugs and contaminated products that we may purchase – especially those from foreign markets or online vendors as products produced abroad aren’t necessary regulated in the same fashion as those under the umbrella of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. To find out more about how to protect yourself from contaminated products and counterfeit drugs, visit SafeMedicines.org.