Growing Concern for Counterfeit Drugs In Caribbean
The Caribbean Association of Pharmacists is raising the concern that counterfeit medicines are being trafficked throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Reports CARIBARENA Antigua, Algernon Roberts, President of the Antigua Pharmaceutical Society says that counterfeit drug trafficking is treated more leniently and is easier to accomplish than illicit drug trafficking.
“Trafficking in counterfeit drugs is now the third biggest illegal business globally, ranking just below human trafficking and illegal drugs. This comes after narco-traffickers recognized that law enforcement authorities worldwide are making it much more difficult for them to ply their trade, so they are gradually turning to counterfeit drugs as replacements.”
Given the ease with which counterfeit medicine manufacturers can reproduce pills and containers, it is easy for counterfeiters to slip fake medicine into the supply chain in the Caribbean, he said.
Given that counterfeits can be as benign as sugar pills, or as vicious as poison or wrong doses of active ingredients, Roberts is concerned that counterfeiters will take advantage of Caribbean countries with weak laws, including using the Caribbean as a transshipment point for other destinations, and leave some of the counterfeits behind.