News Coverage
The Partnership for Safe Medicines has been publishing information about the counterfeit drug problem around the world for more than a decade. With experts leading the organization and a committed and passionate set of writers and editors, our content is more in-depth than many other sources, which simply copy links to the news from other websites.
NY Oncologist Vincent Koh and his office manager wife Mimi agree to pay $500,000 administering illegally purchased and misbranded drugs on their Medicare cancer patients…
This is a reprint of an FDA Alert. When a company announces a recall, market withdrawal, or safety alert, the FDA posts the company’s announcement as a public service. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company. For Immediate Release February 22, 2018 Contact Consumers Bella all Natural cabral_daisy@yahoo.com (323)552-6263 Bella All Natural…
Petty is the third musician and entertainer in the last 2 years that has died as a result of counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl. Pop star Prince, and young rapper Lil Peep both had illicit fentanyl found in their systems when they died.
Years after the appearance of counterfeit Avastin and other drugs in over 500 medical practices in 49 states kicked off an investigation, pending guilty pleas from CanadaDrugs.com, the CEO and two subsidiaries may bring some closure to the victims who were treated with the fake drugs and their families…
Yvonne Clark lost her 21-year-old son to fentanyl poisoning, and now she is trying to help other parents by educating about what an incredible danger fentanyl can be to their children.
This international news update includes two counterfeit drugs stories out of Canada and one from Switzerland that PSM wants to make sure you hear about…
You can save safely by purchasing your prescription drugs online, but you have to be smart about it. We made a list of the most important things to look out for to ensure your purchase does not end up costing you more than you saved…
Major police investigation brings down a drug ring taking deadly fentanyl to the streets of Massachusetts. Police seized enough fentanyl to cause at least 4.5 million fatal overdoses…
A second record-breaking fentanyl bust in New Hanover County, North Carolina in less than a week brought the total fentanyl seized to almost 2,600 grams. That would be enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the county multiple times…
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has just released their Internet Drug Outlet Identification Program Progress Report for February 2018. NABP has conducted an annual survey of Internet drug outlets for the last nine years, and this year it is finding that fake online pharmacies are rushing to get on the fentanyl bandwagon.
Counterfeit medicines are a global threat. A new report documents the instances and consequences of counterfeit medicines showing up in Canada to date and the continuing threat they pose to her citizens…
New Jersey sentenced the two men behind the largest fentanyl bust in the state’s history to jail time. Police found a total of 45 kilograms of fentanyl which could have killed 18 million people…
Rachel Blado of TN tragically lost her son Josh after he purchased what he thought was Xanax online. It turned out to be counterfeit and contained fentanyl. One pill took him from her forever and now she wants to warn everyone of the dangers of counterfeit medicines…
DEA raided multiple addresses in Utah and two other states to bring down the second major fentanyl pill mill operation based out of Utah in just 14 months. This group manufactured and sold counterfeit oxycodone and Xanax made with fentanyl…
In schools around the country, concerns are growing over the threat that counterfeit pills being sold in their hallways presents to the students…
Law enforcement agencies around the country, including the Oregon State Police, are limiting when they will perform roadside drug tests. They feel the potential for officers to be accidentally exposed to fentanyl is too great…
Fimea, Finland’s pharmaceutical watchdog group, ordered hospitals to stop administering a cancer medication over concerns that the medication is counterfeit or diverted…
A group of health professionals in Canada has come up with a unique way to educate the public about the dangers of fentanyl. They created Doctors Against Tragedies, a board game inspired by Cards Against Humanity…
Starting in 2011, Google could only promote sponsored advertisements for NABP-registered pharmacies, but how effective was this change in steering people away from rogue internet pharmacies. A new study looks into how successful they were…
Tramadol is given as a pain medication in India, but it has a high potential for abuse, and in some countries, tramadol deaths outnumber deaths from heroin. It is also completely unregulated in India, and is not on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of scheduled drugs or controlled substance list, which would force countries to regulate it.
The Partnership for Safe Medicines today issued the following statement regarding a new Senate report that highlights the direct harm posed by illegally-imported fentanyl from China…
U.S. Department of Justice announced an indictment against Dr. Johnny C. Benjamin, Jr. of Vero Beach, Florida. He is alleged to have manufactured and sold counterfeit pills made with fentanyl that he purchased online. Authorities know of at least one death attributed to the pills he made…
The INTERDICT Act was recently signed into law, giving the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol $9 million to use for investing in chemical screening technology and additional personnel in their fight to keep fentanyl and illicit opioids out of the country…
Captain Henry King of the Rocky Mount Police Police Department in North Carolina received a Certificate of Exemplary Service for his work to bring down a drug counterfeiter…
Tucker Collins of Grand Forks, ND received a sentence of 65 months in jail for his role in a fentanyl pill distribution ring that sold counterfeit pills in North Dakota and parts of Minnesota. Police know of at least one overdose caused by the pills this group sold…
The opioid and fentanyl crisis shows no signs of slowing down. With stories coming in from all over the U.S., here is a summary of five stories – including arrests, a plea deal, and proposed legislation – that PSM wants to make sure you know about…
After receiving a tip in November 2017, police search the home that Diane D’Anca was operating an illegal med spa out of. Inside, police found a “large amount” of medical supplies and records for 100 clients. In a refrigerator in the garage, they found several vials of Botox she injected into clients that turned out to be counterfeit…
Andrew Tablack and Stephan Durham were running a “pill production facility” in California that could produce thousands of counterfeit pills. A break in the case came when New Jersey authorities seized a massive 44 pound shipment of pills in Monmouth County.
If you are looking to lower your prescription drug costs, know that you have safer options than giving your money, and maybe your health, to a shady online website that claims it is a pharmacy or some random person on the street…
In late November, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a landmark report on the global counterfeit drug epidemic. Unfortunately, the WHO glossed over a major cause of the crisis — instability in the European Union’s drug supply chain — and actually gave the European Union cover by applauding its deeply flawed approach to combating counterfeit drugs. We need a better strategy to win the war on counterfeit drugs.
Yakima, Washington Police Department issues public warning after a bad batch of counterfeit Xanax being sold on the street caused an uptick in overdoses. Police were unsure what was in the pills, but they did know they were not real Xanax and told people to stay away from them…
Alain Lamontagne pleaded guilty in federal court to selling misbranded equine drugs that contained a Schedule III steroid not listed on the label. Lamontagne ran into problems with the law under very similar circumstances in 2011 in his native Canada…
Many government agencies are working to keep fentanyl from killing Americans. U.S. Postal Inspectors have found themselves on the front line working to keep fentanyl out of the country. The DOJ is working to bring justice to those who break our laws and the State Department is in negotiations to help stem the flow of illicit opioids into the country…
According to retired Phoenix Police Commander Tim Hampton, who wrote this editorial in White Mountain Independent on December 15, 2017, legalizing drug importation will help “criminal organizations . . . exploit weaknesses in the law to traffic narcotics,” and increase the flow of counterfeit pills cut with fentanyl into the country: “The drug importation bill would weaken America’s anti-drug defenses and endanger thousands of innocent lives — here in Arizona and throughout the nation.”
IL resident Skyler Dean Prahl pleaded guilty to introducing a misbranded drug into commerce. Prahl used a pharmaceutical powdered purchased from overseas to make Tramadol pills, which he sold online to customers around the U.S…
Couple with no medical training, who repeatedly smuggled counterfeit cosmetic injectables into the U.S. and used them on their clients, received sentences for their crimes. Unfortunately, two of their clients have been left with permanent nerve damage…
Trial initiated by an FDA-OCI investigation into a call center in India selling counterfeit and misbranded drugs to Americans ends with sentencing for the two defendants…
U.S. DOJ received guilty pleas from oncologist and wife who ordered misbranded cancer drugs from QSP, a CanadaDrugs.com wholesaler, 65 times over the course of 21 months while never informing their patients…
People think all prescription drugs cost less in Canada, but is that true? We did a price comparison for simvastatin, generic Zocor, the seventh most frequently prescribed prescription drug in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2016. When we called a brick-and-mortar pharmacy in Canada, we were quoted the price of $12.14 for a 30-day supply, but we found those same pills at pharmacies in the U.S. for only $4.54…
Created in 2013 by WHO, the Global Surveillance and Monitoring System tracks all reports of substandard or counterfeit medicines around the world. To date, 1,500 reports have been filed and a recent analysis showed that over 10% of medicines in low- to middle-income countries are substandard or fake…
The CDC released a report analyzing 5,152 overdose deaths in ten states over a six month period and found fentanyl was involved in 56% of the time…
After years of looking the other way, FDA-OCI conducted raids on several Florida storefronts that facilitate individuals purchasing prescription drugs from online pharmacies, reminding the owners that they could face a fine or jail time for doing so…
The U.S. Department of Justice received guilty pleas from three individuals charged with being part of a conspiracy to import, manufacture, and sell counterfeit medicines online to customers around the U.S…
John Redmond is a former FDA official. He has more than 28 years of federal law enforcement experience, ending his law enforcement career as the Special Agent in Charge of FDA’s Chicago Field Office. In this op-ed in The State Journal-Register, he warns that drug importation will expose Americans to dangerous counterfeit medicines and illegal drugs…
Ramiro Navarro Quesada, who was indicted in 2015, and extradited to the United States in August has pleaded guilty to charges he was running fake online pharmacies, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
Washington state naturopathy Rick Marschall was convicted in 2011 for illegally prescribing misbranded drugs to his patients. Sentenced to probation, he kept prescribing causing the state to suspend his license in 2013. He continued to practice medicine without a license and just received a jail sentence for prescribing the same misbranded drugs to his patients…
The recent indictment of six Canadians demonstrates the role Canada played as part of a larger international fentanyl smuggling ring that shipped fentanyl compounds to the United States.
Counterfeit pills made with fentanyl have flooded the streets of America. No one know how many people have been hurt or killed, but law enforcement and medical communities are gravely concerned…
In October, a woman in Rock Hill, South Carolina received a package from Walmart that she assumed was a yoga mat she had ordered. Instead, the package contained over 20,000 oxycodone pills.
Wayne Winegarden and Nouran Ghana’s editorial was published in Inside Sources on November 15, 2017. In it, they take a hard look at the supposed “price savings” of drug importation and find that the promises do not live up to what would happen. They believe that Americans deserve a better solution than plundering the drug supply of a neighboring country…
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb spoke with FDA-OCI agents about the importance of their work and how the agency is increasing staff at International Mail Facilities and ports of entry to help identify and keep fake drugs and illicit opioids out of the country…
The DEA knows that drug traffickers use industrial pill press machines to make counterfeit medicines. Now the House Energy & Commerce Committee is asking for information on which companies are selling these machines and who is buying them in the U.S…
Starting in 2012, the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments helped increase the number of generic drug applications approved by the FDA. Having recently been reauthorized, the FDA looks forward to increasing the number of safe and affordable generic drugs available to American citizens…
This is a reprint of an FDA Alert. [Posted 11/14/2017] AUDIENCE: Patient, Plastic Surgery, Dermatology, Surgery ISSUE: The FDA is alerting the public and health care providers that injectable silicone is not approved to enhance or augment the body. Such use can lead to ongoing pain, infections, and serious injuries, such as scarring and permanent…
The DOJ and DEA has removed any advantage that illegal chemists who create fentanyl analogues have. Anyone caught trafficking any fentanyl analogue can now be charged as if they were trafficking fentanyl itself…
November 14th is World Diabetes Day. Over 100 million American adults have been diagnosed as suffering from diabetes or have prediabetes. Remember to purchase your medications and diabetes supplies only from U.S. licensed pharmacies in order to avoid counterfeit insulin pens and test strips…
George M. Karavetsos’ editorial was published in The Hill on October 30, 2017. George M. Karavetsos is a partner with the global law firm DLA Piper. He formerly served as the director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations and chief of the Narcotics Section and the executive assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida…
Pet medications can be expensive. The FDA has given advice on how to safely purchase your pet meds online and NeedyMed’s has shared how you might be able to use their Drug Discount Card to save money by picking up your pet’s medications at your regular pharmacy …
After seven months of studying the crisis and conducting interviews, the Opioid Commission released their 56 recommendations to help end the opioid crisis. They included targeting drug organizations and individuals who feel no shame dealing death in the form of counterfeit pills made with fentanyl…
Four years after pleading guilty in 2013, a Pennsylvania pharmacist has been sentenced to 6 months of home detention and three years probation after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to smuggle foreign drugs in the United States and money laundering.
The MacArthur Foundation awarded UC San Diego professor Stefan Savage a MacArthur Genius grant for the holistic approach he has taken to addressing 21st-century technological problems, including spam pharmaceutical advertisements…
In their just-released 2017 Drug Threat Assessment, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has sounded the alarm about the role counterfeit prescription pills are playing an increasingly dangerous role in national opioid deaths.
Two years ago today, Tosh Ackerman of Aptos, CA passed away after taking what he thought was a legitimate prescription pill. Unfortunately, that pill was counterfeit and contained a deadly dose of fentanyl. Tosh is just one of the countless Americans killed by counterfeit medicines. Tosh’s absence is still deeply felt by his family and friends. By taking a moment to remember those we have already lost, the Partnership for Safe Medicines hopes to shine a light on the need to prevent any future deaths from counterfeit medicines.
Instead of destroying unused medications, Med-Fast Pharmacy in Pennsylvania recycled and resold them to nursing homes. The company recently reached a settlement with the Department of Justice and agreed to a $2.6M fine…
A recently unsealed indictment brings 18 charges, including introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce & manufacturing and distributing controlled substances, against Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals and its CEO Jared Wheat…
In an unprecedented action, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced federal grand jury indictments against two Chinese nationals living and working in China. It is alleged the pair operated separate businesses that manufacture illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues and export them to the United States.
Oklahoma Pharmacists Association Director Debra Billingsley published an editorial on October 21, 2017 opposing drug importation proposals:
Now is not the time to allow foreign unlicensed pharmacies to start dispensing drugs into Oklahoma. It would just make it easier for drug traffickers or crooked providers to hurt our citizens.
Every panelist unequivocally stated their opposition to drug importation proposals, citing the danger to patients an unregulated drug supply chain would expose them to. Three, in particular, made cogent arguments on behalf of patient safety and drug accessibility.
An Edmonton home that was used as a pill mill for the largest fake fentanyl pill seizure in Canadian history was deemed uninhabitable until after a hazardous remediation company came in to clean the place up. This is what it was like inside…
This year Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP) has inaugurated a Global Patient Safety Champion award to recognize individuals and organizations that are working to protect patient safety and preserve the gold standard of FDA approval for all American patients.
Authorities in British Columbia announced drug charges against two Vancouver-area residents in a case involving 40,000 fake fentanyl pills. RCMP believes countless lives were saved by keeping these counterfeit pills off the streets…
Public health officials in Seattle announced that a batch of pills found on a body tested positive for fentanyl. They urged the public to be careful, reminding them that fentanyl has no smell or taste and a simple visual inspection cannot say whether a pill is real or a counterfeit…
People think all prescription drugs cost less in Canada, but is that true? We did a price comparison for amlodipine, generic Norvasc, the sixth most frequently prescribed prescription drug in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2016. When we called a brick-and-mortar pharmacy in Canada, we were quoted the price of $24.62 for a 30-day supply, but we found those same pills at pharmacies in the U.S. for only $5.50…
AmerisourceBergen Speciality Group is part of one of the largest wholesale drug companies in the U.S. and recently admitted in federal court to having distributed millions of misbranded oncology drug products throughout the U.S. over the course of 13 years…
The United Kingdom is fighting a battle against counterfeit medicines on two front. The first fight is to keep them out of the hands of her citizens. The second fight is to not let the fake Indian pharmaceutical companies use their country as a postal hub…
Kendra Westmoreland of Maryland received a two-year prison sentence after admitting that she lied to her clients for 15 years. She was not injecting them with medical grade silicone, which it is illegal because of potential health complications. It was actually industrial grade silicone…
As PSM’s Board President, Dr. Marv Shepherd, wrote in an editorial for the Washington Examiner that was published on October 10, 2017, opening the United States to unregulated, imported drugs will offer fentanyl traffickers even more access to Americans:
“The reality is that criminals throughout the illegal supply chain from China to the streets of U.S. cities are making money at the cost of American lives. We need to be taking steps to eliminate illegal fentanyl from our communities, not providing new avenues for those who want to see just the opposite happen.”
Dr. George Patino convicted and sentenced for conspiracy, distributing Human Growth Hormone (HGH) for unauthorized medical purposes, and smuggling. He brought non-FDA approved HGH over from Mexico to treat patients with it for unapproved medical purposes…
Five of the six men who stand accused for their roles in the $78M CanadaDrugs.com counterfeit Avastin case, which saw fake cancer drugs turn up in 28 states, finally received their extradition hearing date…
The U.S. Department of Justice indicted three Florida residents for conspiracy to import, manufacture, and distribute fake prescription drugs and anabolic steroids after U.S Postal Inspectors noticed a large quantity of raw materials needed to make fake pills being shipped to them…
The owner of a pet medication company and the company itself entered guilty pleas in federal court, admitting to have smuggled and sold misbranded and unapproved pet meds to U.S. pet owner for 15 years…
Carolina Aguilar Rodriguez was neither a doctor nor a pharmacist, but that didn’t stop her from prescribing counterfeit and smuggled prescription drugs to her clients at her Houston store. She recently pleaded guilty in federal court…
Two Florida women received their federal prison sentences following years of illegally injecting clients with liquid silicone and lying to them, insisting that the substance was FDA-approved and safe when in reality, it can cause necrosis, disfigurement, pain or death…
Paul Honeman is a former Anchorage Assemblyman representing East Anchorage. He also is a retired Anchorage Police Department Lieutenant. In this September 28, 2017 editorial in The Bristol Bay Times, he highlights the dangers posed by drug importation and reminds everyone why it is currently banned…
CNN’s September 25, 2017 Healthcare Town Hall was an opportunity for prominent senators to share important ideas about ways to improve Americans’ lives, but it also included some erroneous statements about drug importation. PSM’s Board President, Dr. Marv Shepherd, sent this letter on September 29 to clarify those issues.
The owner and the manager of a company in India ran a scheme cold calling phone numbers in the U.S. and Canada hoping the person who picked up the phone would be interested in purchasing some of their counterfeit medications. Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in federal court…
Seeking to prevent any more deaths from fake pills made with fentanyl, the Legislature of Ontario is considering a bill that would make it illegal for anyone except pharmacists to own a pill press, an essential piece of equipment utilized in the manufacturing of counterfeit medicines…
The evening of October 26, 2015, twenty-nine-year-old Aptos, California resident Tosh Ackerman took a benedryl and part of a Xanax pill to help him sleep. He never woke up, and his girlfriend found him dead the next day. Ackerman died because the Xanax he took was counterfeit. It contained a fatal dose of a powerful synthetic opioid called fentanyl.
A new report released April 10, 2018 by The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) illustrates the growing deadly toll that illegally-imported fentanyl is having on communities throughout the U.S. PSM’s analysis confirms reports of counterfeit medicines made with fentanyl in 43 states, with fentanyl-related deaths confirmed in 22 states. The updated findings follow a report released by PSM last September that found a presence of counterfeit fentanyl in 40 states and related deaths in 16 states.
The FDA took action against 500 websites operated by affiliate networks, including the notorious GlavMed, associated with the Win32.Kelihos.b trojan, used to distribute spam via infected computers. GlavMed’s found, Igor Gusev, allegedly operated a sister entity which directed traffic to various cities operating under the name Canadian Pharmacy.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of Jesus Madueno, who was attempting to sell 3,500 counterfeit oxycodone to undercover officers. The pills were made with fentanyl…
The Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs’ Association sent a letter to Senator Heller explaining their reasons for opposing S. 469, the bill that would allow drug importation…
State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman warned citizens in western New York that fake opioid pills made with fentanyl have been discovered for the first time in their part of the state: “These poison pills are the latest troubling development in our state’s opioid crisis.”…
Authorities announced an additional indictment may be filed in the Shamo fake pills made with fentanyl case in Utah. Investigators are also trying to link any overdose deaths to the drug ring and will file charges if any are found…
NH couple pleaded guilty to importing hundreds of thousands of fake pills from India and selling them via the internet to customers throughout the U.S…
As fentanyl makes its way eastward across Canada, the police in the city of Ottawa are leaving nothing to chance and are distributing naloxone kits to all officers to prevent overdoses…
Generic drugs can help you to save on your prescription costs. We did a price comparison and a 90-day supply of generic Abilify only costs $96.18 in the U.S. while Canadians do not have a generic version available to them and must pay $372.73 for a 90-day supply of the brand-name version…
According to the CDC, “Approximately 90% of unintentional overdose deaths in 24 Ohio counties that occurred during January and February 2017 involved fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, or both.”
Georgia authorities have discovered counterfeit pain pills made with fentanyl analogues for a second time this summer.
Georgia resident Betty Jean Collins became an unwitting victim of the state’s June counterfeit Percocet incident when she borrowed one of her husband’s pain pills and ended up in the hospital with a fentanyl overdose.