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.
The National Sheriffs’ Association passed a resolution at their conference opposing pending drug importation proposals. The resolution highlighted multiple reasons why drug importation is a bad idea for everyone…
The Washington Post recently highlighted some of Consumer Reports’ best strategies to help you lower your healthcare cost. Advice covered a range of topics including getting savvy when it comes to medication, making sure you save at the doctor’s office and hospital, being wise about billing and embracing a healthy lifestyle…
The former owner of a Leawood, Kansas business, Midwest Medical Aesthetics, has been charged with importation of misbranded drugs. Kathleen Stegman has been charged with illegally importing $194,000 worth of non-FDA approved “Botox,” Dysport,” “Restylane,” “Perlane,” and “Sculptra,” according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Stegman is currently serving 51 months in prison after…
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), a Massachusetts man pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit drugs and to distribute a controlled substance. Robert Medeiros, a 32-years-old from Gardner, was one of six people arrested and charged on April 12, 2017. The group is alleged to…
The bills before Congress would remove many of the license and oversight requirements on the drugs imported into the United States by lifting those barriers, inviting an influx of bogus pharmaceutical products from the same crime rings that are selling these drugs in other countries around the world that would love better access to the U.S. market.
Law enforcement would inevitably be tasked with policing the problem, at a time when most prosecutors and law enforcement officials have their hands full with the growing opioid crisis. One of the biggest killers is fentanyl, a potent, synthetic opioid pain medication that is being laced into counterfeit pills.
A 47-year-old Houston woman appeared in federal court in June 2017 to face charges for allegedly smuggling a counterfeit drug into the U.S. and trafficking it through her weight loss and nutrition store located in a west Houston strip mall.
A new survey conducted by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP) has found that a majority of Americans are in the dark when it comes to dangers posed by unlicensed online pharmacies.
Cincinnati resident Shoaib Haroon was recently sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to sell people counterfeit drugs. Mr. Haroon received and filled the orders out of his home. He was observed mailing 80 packages each day out of the same post office. Inside the packages were counterfeit pills in plastic bags.
The National Post reports that since October 2015, Health Canada has stopped almost 10,000 packages containing counterfeit prescription drugs at the Canadian border. New reports from a 2010 incident reveal that counterfeit drugs ended up in 260 pharmacies and four hospitals in Australia. Patients were protected by a thorough hospital pharmacist who noticed “it was grittier than normal.”
Counterfeit Altuzan, known as Avastin in the U.S., resurfaces in Cyprus and India four years after FDA reported U.S. doctors purchasing it.
Freeh warned that allowing drug importation from Canada was akin to allowing drugs to be imported from anywhere. Quality would be at risk, and the opioid crisis, an epidemic that killed over 33,000 Americans in 2015, would only get worse. He said that allowing drug importation, “…will not only fuel that, but it will also, in my opinion, encourage a lot of criminal groups and organizations that heretofore have not been involved in this trade, but will see huge opportunities to enter the market.”
A few years ago, Maine introduced similar legislation that allowed patients to buy drugs from foreign pharmacies. We, too, wanted to provide patients with lower-cost medicines.
It proved to be a big mistake. Instead of getting drugs from Canada, we got dangerous and ineffective counterfeit pills from other countries. Maine’s disastrous experience with counterfeit Canadian drug imports should serve as a lesson to our lawmakers to say no to drug importation legislation.
During my law enforcement career, spanning four decades, I have spent a great deal of time investigating crimes related to illegal drug use and trafficking. The growing scourge of methamphetamine and opioid use is unlike other crimes I have prosecuted in the past. It has literally changed the way we protect our citizens and officers. In addition to the traditional equipment carried by an officer, they must now equip themselves with Naloxone to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose, thusly, amending our existing policies has become necessary.
In the midst of a nationwide epidemic of opioid addiction fueled by illicit smuggling of drugs from overseas, and coming on the heels of a year in which U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized over $73 million worth of counterfeit medicines at our nation’s ports, some members of Congress have suggested a novel approach to these growing threats: “opening the floodgates.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer published this editorial by George M. Karavetsos, a partner with the global law form DLA Piper, and former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations.
Proposed Drug Importation Law Will Worsen U.S. Opioid Epidemic
More than 60,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine, caused one-fifth of those fatalities. Local law enforcement and health professionals are working at a feverish pace to prevent fatal overdoses. Even librarians in drug-plagued neighborhoods . . .
A series of recent cases across the country illustrate how dangerous unlicensed and counterfeit cosmetic treatments can be. Having filler injected should be considered a medical procedure, not a cosmetic treatment. The FDA has NOT approved liquid silicone or silicone gel for injection to fill wrinkles or augment tissues anywhere in the body.
In the last two months, three cases illustrated just how dangerous it is to seek beauty treatment injections from anyone other than a licensed medical professional . . .
When policymakers talk about drug importation, they often make comparisons to importation of food. “If we can import produce safely,” they say, “don’t tell me we can’t import medicine.”
The truth is that importing food safely is difficult. The stakes are even higher when we import medicine: no one expects lettuce to cure cancer . . .
In a recent series about the counterfeit medicines problem, Life Science Leader focused on organizations, including the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), that are working to educate the public and keep counterfeit medicines from hurting people.
Dr. Marv Shepherd, president of the PSM and professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Pharmacy, said, “I see improvement in industry efforts to stop counterfeiters, but I don’t see improvement in results.”
Update: In May 2017, Deanna Roberts pleaded guilty to illegally injecting persons with liquid silicone and for introducing liquid silicone that was obtained by fraud into interstate commerce. Roberts, who continued to administer industrial grade silicone injections even after she knew that one her patients had died and others had been hospitalized, was sentenced to…
Timeline Leading to the Extradition of CanadaDrugs Principals Image courtesy of Legitscript.com According to CBC News, new information has come to light in the case against six executives of CanadaDrugs.com. The company, its affiliates, and associates in the United Kingdom and Barbados stand accused of illegally importing and selling $78 million worth of unapproved, misbranded…
June 29, 2017 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 Contact Consumers sales@hardcoreformulations.com 1-855-773-6826 San Marcos, TX, Hardcore Formulations is…
Email spam is one of the curses of our online lives. At the very least, it is a nuisance, and at its worst, it distributes false information, dangerous malware, and phishing messages. TG Daily recently reported how one company determined that there was not an online Canadian pharmacy behind email spam messages, but a massive…
As reported by WSB-TV2 Atlanta, chemistry experts at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) issued a public safety warning to the state’s citizens. Agents warned that the latest crisis is counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and fentanyl analogues sold to unsuspecting people on the street. GBI spokeswoman Nelly Mile called the situation unprecedented, noting that, “If…
Many people struggle to lose weight, and under a doctor’s supervision, diet pills can be a safe and effective way to reach your goal. Some people, like Elna Baker, are so afraid of regaining the weight that they continue taking the pills by purchasing them while in other countries or ordering them from online pharmacies. While…
Dr. Kenneth D. Nahum, his oncology practice, and Ann Walsh, his wife and the practice manager, have agreed to pay the U.S. $1.7 million to resolve allegations of violating the False Claims Act. They stood accused of ordering drugs from a foreign distributor not approved to sell them in the U.S. and administering those drugs…
When Dr. Watts’ veterinary patient stopped responding to medication, Dr. Watts questioned the source of the medication. The pet’s owner purchased the medication from online. When the doctor called the manufacturer with the owner in the room, the manufacturer stated that they could not guarantee the product from that source and considered it potentially counterfeit.…
Online pharmacy Canada Drugs, under indictment for selling millions of dollars worth of fake and misbranded cancer medications to U.S. medical offices, still retains its license to operate from the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba, according to CBC’s Karen Pauls. Despite accusations from U.S. federal prosecutors for allegedly selling $78 million of unapproved, misbranded and…
Police in Ottawa made a disturbing discovery when conducting a drug bust, CBC Canada is reporting. In addition to finding a typical array of cash, drugs and guns, Ottawa police found a quantity of an “unknown powder” that has yet to be analyzed, and a counterfeit pill press capable of producing 20,000 counterfeit pills an…
Almost three years after the original grand jury indictment in November 2014, the owner of Canada Drugs and five of his co-conspirators were arrested on June 14 and 15 in Canada under the Extradition Act, reports CBC News. Kristjan Thorkelson, Thomas Haughton, Ronald Sigurdson, Darren Chalus, Troy Nakamura, and James Trueman have been arrested in…
A Utah man and five friends are facing federal drug trafficking, drug counterfeiting, mail and wire-fraud charges for allegedly distributing hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription medications laced with fentanyl, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release reports. The DOJ alleges that Aaron Michael Shamo and his co-conspirators turned his suburban Cottonwood Heights home into…
Kevin St. James, Commissioner of Rockingham County in New Hampshire is very concerned that Congressional representatives will pass drug importation legislation without giving any thought to the explosive impact that opening our borders to drug shipments will have on America’s deadly opioid/fentanyl crisis.
The most recent editorial in Stat advocating black market drug importation under the guise of “ordering prescription drugs abroad” overlooks many safety dangers. The most important oversight is in the characterization of the cost of medications. Over 80% of all medications dispensed in the U.S. are dispensed as generic, and generics as a whole are…
In a new program for North Carolina, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has set up a public awareness campaign for her state that allows North Carolinians to check whether the online pharmacy they want to purchase from is genuine, the News & Observer reports. Dubbed “Verify Before you Buy,” the new program aims to protect…
On June 1, 2017, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), which represents 64,000 pharmacy professionals, and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), which represents more than 100 national and regional pharmacy chains, sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him not to support legislation that would allow broad personal and commercial importation of non-FDA approved prescription drugs.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 75 million people, 1 of 3 U.S. adults, have high blood pressure and only 54% of these people have their high blood pressure under control. It is not surprising that lisinopril, the generic version of Prinivil that treats high blood pressure and heart failure, was the third…
A San Francisco area news station, NBC Bay Area conducted a survey of Bay Area counties and found at least 130 fentanyl-related deaths since 2015. NBC Bay Area spoke to John Martin, special agent in charge for the drug agency’s San Francisco division. Special Agent Martin told them “What we’ve seen here in Northern California…
A review of the client database recovered during a recent raid at a call center in Bengaluru, India has shown that the U.S. is a major market for illegal online prescription drug sales. According to the Times of India, the April 19, 2017 bust produced evidence of the call center selling drugs and prescription pharmaceuticals…
This editorial by Scott Bertani was published in the Washington Herald on May 7, 2017. Mr. Bertani is the Director of Policy and Community Relations for Lifelong AIDS Alliance, a nonprofit health advocacy group based in Western Washington.
This editorial by Derek Arnson appeared in the Washington Examiner on May 8, 2017. Mr. Arnson is the former Chief of Police in Nogales, Arizona.
This editorial by Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D. appeared in Forbes on April 27, 2017. Dr. Winegarden is the Managing Editor for EconoSTATS and a senior Fellow in Business and Economics at the Pacific Research Institute.
his editorial by Leona Aglukkaq appeared in the Washington Post on May 12, 2017. Leona Aglukkaq was a member of Canadian House of Commons representing the riding of Nunavut until 2015. She previously served as Canada’s minister of health from 2008-2013.
Ellen L. Carmichael’s editorial appeared in The Hayride on May 5, 2017. Carmichael formerly served as press secretary to now-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D. She is currently president of The Lafayette Company.
Ali Schroer wrote this editorial for the Washington Examiner on May 10, 2017.
Like millions of Americans, I take allergy medicine. A few years ago, my doctor urged me to bid farewell to my local pharmacy and instead buy my medication from an online Canadian drug store, where it was cheaper. What terrible advice! The website was counterfeit and sent me “medicine” that was anything but — causing me to get severely sick . . .
In an editorial published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Louis J. Freeh, former director of the FBI and former federal judge, warns that allowing American citizens to purchase medicine from foreign countries puts them at risk from counterfeit drugs, would incentive criminal organizations to make counterfeit drugs, and places more stress on law enforcement efforts to combat the issue.
George Karavetsos, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations wrote this editorial for the Miami Herald on May 6, 2017.
On May 9th, the board of the Partnership for Safe Medicines sent the following letter to all members of the U.S. Senate. Dear Senator, The Partnership for Safe Medicines has dutifully studied the problem of counterfeit drugs in America for over a decade. We have examined court transcripts of prosecutions of counterfeiters, watched scientists test counterfeits…
A Greensboro, North Carolina news station, WFMY News2, is warning viewers that the Internet is filled with fake online pharmacies that sell counterfeit drugs. In the television segment accompanying the story, WFMY shared surveillance images of a suspected drop-shipper posting up to 80 packages of counterfeit medications a day. The U.S. Postal Inspector WFMY spoke…
Narinder Kaulder, head of Operations for River East, a company named in the Canada Drugs indictment, is currently fighting extradition from England on charges he was part of the conspiracy that sold counterfeit cancer medication to U.S. oncology clinics in 2012, the Daily Mail reports. According to the CanadaDrugs Indictment, lot number B6011 of Avastin that…
The Morning Consult recently published an op-ed by Libby Baney, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP Global), a nonprofit dedicated to addressing the growing public health threat of illegal online pharmacies. In the piece, Ms. Baney stated that drug importation proposals are not a safe or effective way to address the rising cost of prescription drugs . . .
Ronald Piervincenzi, CEO of the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention describes the dangerous flaws in any plan to open up U.S. borders to wholesale prescription medication importation from Canada.
The Washington Examiner recently ran an op-ed by Charlie Cichon, the Executive Director of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators. In it he explained how the opioid crisis will only be made worse if the U.S. allows drug importation.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Pharmacy Board (NLPB), which governs and regulates all pharmacies operating in their Canadian province, has written a letter to the U.S. Congress, which bluntly states, “the importation of medicines from Canada is not the solution.”
Canadian pharmaceutical importer Quantum Solutions and its officers have been charged with two felony counts by the DOJ. Quantum Solutions runs a dozen different pharmacy websites, including Canada Drug Center. Dr. Kenneth McCall, of the University of New England, tested prescriptions from Canada Drug Center in 2014, and found they were substandard and contaminated. Three…
The College of Pharmacists of Manitoba (CPM), the regulatory authority in the Canadian province of Manitoba that oversees safe pharmacy practice, wrote to the United States Congress requesting that they reject the current importation bill.
University of Maryland professor Robert Freeman warns that proposed changes in U.S. laws and regulations to make the movement of drugs from other countries easier will increase fentanyl deaths in the U.S. In an editorial in The Hill, Dr. Freeman warns that the opioid abuse problem affects a greater proportion of the Canadian population…
Former Federal Regulators, Law Enforcement Officials Dispute Rhetoric on Drug Importation Merits, Highlight the Serious Harm Posed to Patient Health Washington, D.C. — In one of the strongest challenges to drug importation proposals to date, several former federal law enforcement officials and public health experts warned of serious consequences in opening up the U.S. drug supply…
A small-scale study in the United Kingdom has found that 75% of the assessed online pharmacies that offer drugs for sale in the UK are unregistered as legitimate pharmacies, and most offer antibiotics without a prescription. This finding could be a serious driver of microbial resistance. Obtaining Antibiotics Online from within the UK: a Cross-Sectional…
Richard Baum, acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, warned the House Energy and Commerce Committee that “illicit fentanyl is an urgent public health threat,” in a letter dated Wednesday, March 29, reports the Wall Street Journal. Baum’s letter cites the tripling of the death rate due to fentanyl…
More than half of law enforcement officials surveyed believe drug importation would increase the flow of counterfeit medications into the United States. Six in ten pharmacists believe drug importation would increase rates of drug abuse across the country. For Immediate Release March 30, 2017 Washington, D.C. – A new national poll of pharmacists and law…
Patients may not understand that generic medication is therapeutically equivalent to brand name medication. Generics offer a affordable and safe option that all patients should discuss with their pharmacist. Additionally, there are prescription assistance programs available to help those who are struggling to pay for the medications they need. According to WBRC, if you have…
All the proposals by politicians to allow drug importation have overlooked something huge: most FDA-approved generics are just as affordable or cheaper in the U.S. as they are in Canada. We called several brick-and-mortar Canadian pharmacies asking about prices and found that a 30-day prescription of 10 mg tablets of the generic version of Crestor…
On March 22, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), which represents 64,000 pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pharmacy students and other pharmacy professionals wrote a letter to Congress opposing plans to legalize importation of non-FDA approved drugs. These proposals, they wrote, are “in direct conflict with recent efforts by Congress and federal agencies to increase the integrity and security of the U.S. drug supply.”
The Washington Post reports that the four most recent FDA commissioners have warned Congress that American patients will suffer if they import drugs from other countries, citing fake, substandard and contaminated drugs as potential consequences.
Mike Leavitt | March 20, 2017 With the issue of prescription drug importation being debated on Capitol Hill again, mark me in the skeptical camp. As a matter of safety and practical policymaking, drug importation simply doesn’t work. It is not by happenstance that our country has the world’s safest drug supply. Counterfeit medicines are proliferating…
On Tuesday, February 28, Allan Coukell, Senior Director of Health Programs for the Pew Charitable Trusts, wrote Senator Bernie Sanders to ask that he not undermine safety protections for medication with the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act.
Investigators confirm that pills found near Chloe Kotval’s body were fake Percocet containing a lethal dose of fentanyl. She is the youngest Canadian to be killed by fentanyl-laced fake medication, but hardly the first. Chloe Kotval, a 14 year old Ottawa high school student died on February 14, 2017 after taking a counterfeit pill laced…
Americans have been talking about saving money on medicine by importing drugs from Canada for years and circulating price comparison tables to prove their point. In the past few days, this graphic has been making the rounds; The Partnership for Safe Medicines staff wondered whether these prices were accurate, and so we checked them by…
For years, if you suffered from severe allergies, EpiPen was the best-known option to prevent anaphylaxis. Mylan, the manufacturer of EpiPen, released a generic alternative in December 2016, however, there is an even more affordable option on the market. As reported by Consumer Reports, Adrenaclick had long been a cheaper alternative to the EpiPen, but…
Coalition Calls on Congress to Maintain Safe Access to Medicines For Immediate Release February 28, 2017 Washington, D.C. – The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) today sent a letter signed by nearly 170 groups to all members of Congress urging them to continue protecting Americans and stand against efforts that would allow substandard and even dangerous…
David Beckford was one of 5 California residents charged in a scheme to produce and sell fake Xanax from bulk medication imported from China. A Northern California Federal Court has sentenced Oakland resident David Beckford to ten years in prison after his guilty plea on counterfeit drug, money laundering, and weapons charges, The Department of…
NYC Couple Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Illegally Distribute and Dispense Fake Cosmetic Injectable
Brooklyn, New York residents Bu Young Kim and Chan Hui Cho pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to dispense and administer cosmetic drugs and treatment without being a licensed medical professional, import of misbranded drugs and attempting to smuggle $79,986 from the United States to South Korea. According to the United States Department of…
A clandestine fake drug factory in Colombia washes empty medication bottles before filling them with counterfeit Tazocin, a prescription antibiotic. Photo courtesy of Pfizer. On February 10th, 2017, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacies wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress about the risks associated with Canadian online pharmacies. The letter, below in text…
Juan Gallinal, a former Virginia police officer, acted as the head of a Florida conspiracy that used a valid brick-and-mortar pharmacy as a cover for series of fake pharmacy websites that sold misbranded and addictive drugs. The owner of a fake online pharmacy business in Florida has been sentenced to eight years in prison, the…
The Justice Department, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are concerned about Americans illegally purchasing prescription medicines from foreign sources. According to News Channel 10, investigations are underway to protect Americans from these potentially dangerous substances. The Justice Department has been looking at the data and as…
Arizona resident Betty Hunter died of lung cancer, but how much longer would she have lived if her oncologist had not treated her with counterfeit Avastin? A recent Danish documentary tells the tragic story of Arizona grandmother Betty Hunter, who in 2011 sought treatment for her lung cancer at an oncology clinic in Chandler Arizona.…
An investigation into the corruption of former Governor Javier Duarte has uncovered allegations that children with cancer were treated in state-run hospitals in Veracruz with counterfeit chemotherapy medicines due to budget shortfalls and lack of resources caused by his administration. The BBC reports, that when tested, the counterfeit chemotherapy drugs came back as an inert…
Since 2012, the FDA has issued warnings to more than 3,000 doctors, clinics and hospitals about eight different breaches in the U.S. drug supply chain by rogue distributors such as Richards Pharma, Canada Drugs, Medical Device King, Gallant Pharmaceuticals, and TC Medical. These rogue distributors offered 63 different non-FDA approved medicines. Have you or has someone you know taken medicine that these smugglers have sold?
The two men acted as U.S. distributors for a series of Thailand-based fake online pharmacy websites that sold imported and non-FDA approved medication to U.S. consumers. Troy Tapia and Anthony Rouse III of Louisiana have each been sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering,…
In 2016 alone, over 1,400 practitioners were warned by the FDA that their supplier was selling unapproved so-called “Botox.” With more than 2,400 professionals warned in the past 5 years, the expansion of use for this medication provides new markets for counterfeiters selling fake and misbranded drugs. Botulinum neurotoxin, or Botox as it is known,…
January 5, 2017 Dear Senators and Representatives, In December of 2015 we released the attached letter warning Congress of the dangers to American patients from counterfeit drugs brought into America through “importation” proposals. As you consider the budget this year, we wanted to bring to your attention several recent tragic events that show the negative…
Defendants allegedly purchased expired or close-to-expired gastric lap-band surgery kits on the Internet, disguised them as new, and then re-sold them to local physicians. Florida residents Peter Kakfa and Gregory Grimm are being accused of running an expired/misbranded gastric bypass banding system scam via their employer Apollo Endosurgery, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reports. According…
Authorities in San Juan are making a public appeal to find more victims of “Rosa from Venezuela.” A federal court in San Juan, Puerto Rico has brought charges of injecting adulterated products into at least 2 different women against Rosa Betancourt-Farfán, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports. Betancourt-Farfán is alleged to have posed as…
Pair that were arrested in London in October 2012 for operating a fake online pharmacy that sold to U.S. consumers plead guilty and are sentenced. Pakistani fake online pharmacy entrepreneurs Sheikh Waseem Ul Haq and Tahir Saeed have been sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to 48 counts, including “conspiracy to import Schedule II,…
Dr. Magdy Elsawy has admitted to no wrongdoing in his settlement, however it was originally alleged he provided non-FDA approved cancer medications to his patients, defrauded Medicare, and provided treatments to patients that were more complex than needed or entirely medically unneeded. North Iowa Today is reporting that the owner and lead physician at Hematology…
Dr. Diana Anda Norbergs was convicted by a Federal Grand Jury on 45 counts related to her multi-year practice of treating her oncology patients with imported, non-FDA approved cancer medications, and then billing Medicare, public, and private insurers for the full cost of the genuine treatments. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is reporting that…
California nurse who provided Botox treatments to the stars of Real Housewives of Orange County has pleaded guilty to charges she treated her patients with non-FDA approved Botox. Her original supplier of the misbranded Botox was SB Medical, an illicit Canadian medication importer that paid $75 million in fines and Penalties in 2015 for illegally…
Indicted in absentia in 2012, Junaid Qadir, part owner of a clandestine medication importer based in Pakistan has finally been forced to face U.S. justice. Junaid Qadir, a principal in a family-owned pharmaceutical business in Karachi, Pakistan, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for his role in the illegal importation and sale of…
Rooting out fake online pharmacy links from University websites is an endless game of whack-a-mole for University network security officers. Ephemeral pharmacy web links appear and disappear constantly on major university websites. Inspired by one of their news gathering partners, Fox 59 News in Indianapolis, Indiana did a bit of checking with the help of…
With the costs of medication rising, consumers are on the lookout for discounts on the drugs they need. PSM’s Timothy Mackey offered CNN some helpful tips on how to ensure the online pharmacy you are doing business with is a legitimate source of medication. From generic drugs to prescription drug coupons and prescription assistance programs,…
The United Kingdom’s Medicines & Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launched an information and safety campaign concerning dangerous fake diet pills. The MHRA is asking U.K. residents to not take chances with lose-weight-fast promises with their “Dodgy Diet Pills” campaign, warning consumers that “fake or unlicensed medical products sold as slimming pills are untested,” and…
Dr. Paul S. Singh is currently serving one year of home detention after pleading guilty to charges that he deceived his patients and defrauded Medicare by implanting his patients with non-FDA approved IUDs purchased on the Internet. Earlier this year, a Southern California gynecologist, Dr. Paul S. Singh was sentenced to 6 months in prison,…
South Carolina medical practice prosecuted for buying non-FDA approved injectable cosmetic treatments. A medical practice in Greenville, South Carolina has been sentenced to 3 years of federal probation for treating patients with non-FDA approved Botox, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release reported on the occasion of the sentencing. According to the DOJ, “Records obtained…
As the price of Mylan EpiPens have skyrocketed, Consumer Reports and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacies caution consumers to save money safely by taking advantage of available discounts, and steering clear of fake online pharmacies. Consumer Reports has reached out to consumers in light of recent cost hikes for life-saving EpiPens. According to…
The director of The Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OCI) warns consumers about counterfeit medication. George Karavetsos, the director of FDA-OCI, discussed patient risks from counterfeit medication in a recent episode of the daytime TV show, “The Doctors,” and shared a short film called FDA Supplement Truth that illustrates the dangers posed…
When Prince Rogers Nelson died in April, it was reported that he died of an apparent overdose of opiates, which he had used to combat chronic hip pain. Now a new report from Minneapolis indicates he died as a result of taking counterfeit hydrocodone containing deadly fentanyl. Prince Rogers Nelson, an American musician and performer,…
Karen Chamberlain faces up to a year in prison on charges she purchased cancer drugs from clandestine medical importer, Quality Specialty Products (QSP). A 62-year old medical office manager in Tennessee is facing up to a year in prison after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges that she imported non-FDA approved cancer medications for the clinic…
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy also examines the role that fake online pharmacies are playing in distributing counterfeit pain pills laced with fentanyl. A new report from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has just been released. Titled “The Internet Drug Outlet Identification Program Progress Report for State and Federal Regulators:…
As counterfeit pills containing various fentanyl analogues are killing people all over the United States, the DEA takes a measure of this deadly and growing counterfeit drug epidemic. The recent arrival of large amounts of “counterfeit prescription drugs containing fentanyls” is causing an explosive growth in overdose deaths in the United States, according to a…
In an article written by Next Avenue’s Emily Gurnon, Partnership for Safe Medicines board member Jim Dahl explains why shopping at unlicensed online pharmacies is anything but harmless to U.S. consumers. While patients might be lured to unlicensed pharmacy website with the promise of savings, a counterfeit drug that doesn’t help your health is no…
Although 5 doctors in Connecticut and 256 doctors nationwide have received FDA warning letters concerning purchases of non-FDA approved medication from the now-defunct medicine wholesaler Gallant Pharma International, no state medical boards have investigated any of their practices. Now Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is calling for the FDA to provide these names to state…