Policy/Enforcement News
RxResponse Helps Sandy Victims Find Open Pharmacies
Recovering from Sandy but in need of vital medication? RxResponse is here to help.
In the wake of disasters such as hurricane Sandy, patients can find out online if their pharmacy is open and accessible by using RxResponse.
Rx Response helps get critical medicines to patients whose health is threatened by a severe public health emergency, such as a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or pandemic, by sharing information and problem-solving for a coalition of bio-pharmaceutical supply chain organizations, disaster relief agencies and local, state and federal government agencies.
[...]PhRMA and GPhA Standing United Against Counterfeit Medicines at Interchange
John Castellani, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and Ralph G. Neas, President and Chief Executive Officer, Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA), took the dais together at the Partnership for Safe Medicines 2012 Interchange on September 28, 2012 to discuss the risks of counterfeits to patient safety.
PSM2012: Startling and Compelling Speakers Focused on Patient Safety and Criminal Acts
The Partnership for Safe Medicines’ 2012 Interchange on September 28th, 2012 at the National Press Club brought together researchers, patient advocates, law enforcement and industry to discuss the damage counterfeit medications and fake online pharmacies cause to Americans. “This year’s Interchange was our boldest, most ambitious effort to date,” said PSM President Dr. Marvin D.…
[...]FDA Wants You To Be Safe When Buying Drugs Online
FDA launches BeSafeRx, a national campaign to make online pharmacy shopping safer, warning consumers that 97% of pharmacies online don’t adhere to state and federal laws.
In a report carried by the Washington Post, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg has announced a new consumer education campaign, aimed at protecting the American consumer from counterfeit drugs.
[...]FDA Develops Hand-held Counterfeit Drug Detection Device
The US Food and Drug Administration has introduced a powerful new tool in the war against counterfeit drugs. It’s a hand-held counterfeit drug detection spectrometer that uses light to detect anomalies in drug appearance and packaging.
Called the Counterfeit Detection Device #3, or CD3, it was developed internally by the FDA, and presented at an FDA symposium by Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on September 11th, reports CNN.
[...]Dr. Paul Newton Talks Counterfeit Drugs & Drug Resistance in Recent Interview
In a recent interview with Pathogens & Global Health, Dr. Paul Newton, Head of the Welcome Trust-Mahosot Hospital-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Collaboration in Vientiane, Laos, offered his expertise on the growing problem of counterfeit medication in the treatment of tropical diseases.
Dr. Paul Newton works in the heart of Malaria country in Southeast Asia. As a result, he has a very clear, first-hand perspective on the role counterfeit and substandard drugs play in drug resistance and the human cost of counterfeit medication. He is also well acquainted with the drug supply chain problems that plague malarious regions.
[...]Office of Criminal Investigations Director John Roth to Speak at Interchange
The new Director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Criminal
Investigations, John Roth, will be the luncheon speaker at the Partnership for Safe Medicines 2012 Interchange on September 28.
Roth joins the esteemed panel of Interchange speakers that includes keynote speaker Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the FDA, and panelists Gerald Heddell, Director of Inspection, Enforcement and Standards of the UK’s MHRA, and James Dinkins, Executive Associate Director, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations.
[...]Gang Members Caught Selling Expired Cancer Medication; Thief Steals Cancer Meds to Sell into Gray Market
In Russia two gang members were arrested for selling expired cancer medications to pharmacies and hospitals, repackaged as if authentic. Meanwhile a Miami pharmacy technician stole fragile, refrigerated cancer medications in order to re-sell them.
In July 2012, Russian police arrested two counterfeit drug gang members for allegedly selling $15.4 million of counterfeit cancer medications.
USAID: Fighting Counterfeit Malaria Drugs Worldwide
Drug resistance as a result of the proliferation of counterfeit/low dose treatments is a growing problem in the fight against malaria. USAID is leading the charge to combat counterfeit malaria treatments in the places where malaria drug resistance is developing.
Drug counterfeiters, exploiting a captive audience in malaria sufferers, have helped create artemisinin-resistant malaria strains along the Thai/Cambodia and Thai/Myanmar borders. Counterfeit versions of malaria drugs have proliferated along the war-torn borders in Southeast Asia, and are also showing up in several African nations.
[...]Arrest Warrant Issued for Convicted Canadian Online Pharmacy Operator
An arrest warrant has been issued by Judge Irma Gonzalez, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, in San Diego, for Canadian businessman Nathan Jacobson as a result of his failure to appear for sentencing in the vast Affpower fake online pharmacy case.
In 2007, Jacobson was one of 18 indicted on racketeering and related charges for allegedly operating an internet business that generated more than $126 million in gross revenues from the illegal sale of prescription medicines from customers across the U.S., reported the U.S. Department of Justice.
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