World News

(HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent letters warning more than two dozen companies to stop selling fraudulent products that claim to prevent or cure cancer. The agency is also cautioning consumers not to buy or use these products, which include tablets, teas, tonics, black salves, and creams, and are sold…

The Sierra Leone Pharmacy Board has destroyed sub-standard and counterfeit drugs worth over Le 31 million at the Kenema Government Hospital. Pharmacy board chairman for Kenema and Kailahun districts, Sahr Sylvanus Komba said all the destroyed drugs do not have any seal of origin and they come into Sierra Leone through the country's porous borders…

The presence of large quantities of ineffective or counterfeit anti-malarial drugs on the Kenyan market is hampering efforts to fight the disease, according to health officials. "Some of the counterfeit drugs are substandard and usually do not have the active ingredients required to treat malaria," Dorothy Otieno, an officer in the Ministry of Medical Services'…

The OECS has mounted an advocacy campaign to help identify and deal with counterfeit medicines. A series of regional consultations facilitated by the OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement Service (PPS) started in Castries, St. Lucia on 5 June to highlight the issue. The PPS reported that participants were amazed at the magnitude and dangers posed by counterfeit…

Cyber-crime pays. But selling counterfeit drugs apparently pays better. Some of the world's most prolific spammers used to tout products for a few pennies per million e-mails or con consumers into forking over credit card information. But these groups have found that the most profit and growth potential lies in actually shipping the fake Viagra…

The proliferation of counterfeit drugs on the global market and easy availability via online pharmacies is an increasing problem. The makers of counterfeit drugs have enjoyed and profited from loopholes in a system designed to deliver healthy medicines to those in need. The rising cost of prescription medications and the ubiquitous presence of online and…

(Bloomberg) — Counterfeit medicines are on the rise worldwide, as criminals capitalize on the growing use of the Internet by consumers searching for inexpensive drugs. Seizures of bogus prescription medicines jumped 24 percent to 1,513 incidents in 2007, and illicit versions of 403 different prescription drugs were confiscated in 99 countries, according to the Pharmaceutical…

Finnish Customs has been seizing a growing volume of counterfeit medications. Officials say that they expect an ever sharper upswing during the summer months. Most counterfeit pharmaceuticals are purchased through the Internet, but more and more are being found in shipments on cargo planes arriving from Asia. Last year, customs in Finland seized over 120…