Ryan Haight. Marcia Bergeron. They paid with their wallets for diverted and counterfeit drugs. They also paid with their lives.

Earlier this month, the Los Angels Times published a story that explored the extremely profitable relationship between spammers and drug counterfeiters. For some time now, spammers have made money by sending countless emails to the public and then charging the credit cards of those who responded for products which never existed. In some case, the spammers sold that credit card information to other criminals.

On a daily basis, many individuals unknowingly risk death or serious injury to their health by taking counterfeit drugs. As executive director of the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), I see first-hand how counterfeiters thrive in countries where the anti-counterfeiting laws are weak; the drug regulatory agencies are underfunded and understaffed; and legal sanctions are ineffective.

After years of neglect, it’s refreshing to see Congress giving drug safety the attention it deserves. But as my colleague Dr. Shepherd said last month, policy makers must view these efforts as the beginning of improving our supply chain, not the end.

I’m not sure I understand the reluctance of our Federal agencies to identify their resource needs. In the case of counterfeit medicines, this is a serious problem which affects all Americans. Those charged with protecting our medicines should frankly state their needs.