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.
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.
A Florida resident received a sentence of four years in federal prison for operating multiple internet pharmacies that sold drugs sourced from Romania and India without requiring a prescription…
Quesada was originally indicted in October 2015. He allegedly used his websites to sell medication to unsuspecting U.S. patients that were unaware they were buying misbranded and counterfeit prescription drugs manufactured in India.
Mexican authorities announced their largest fentanyl seizure to date, which included 30,000 counterfeit pills made with fentanyl. The final destination of all of the fentanyl seized was believed to be U.S. streets…
Marv Shepherd, President of Board of Directors for the Partnership for Safe Medicines, reexamined the possible effects on Canada’s drug supply should the U.S. legalize drug importation…
Police in Edmonton, Alberta announced the seizure of 130,000 counterfeit pills containing fentanyl from multiple residences in the area, including one home converted into a fentanyl pill processing lab…
On May 22, 2016, law enforcement officers were dispatched to a residence in Madison, Wisconsin, in response to a report of a 37-year-old man who had stopped breathing. The victim was dead by the time officers arrived at his residence. An autopsy later confirmed that the victim’s death was caused by acute intoxication due to the combined effects of a substance called U-47700 and Benzodiazepine Analogue (Etizolam).
A young New York mother is dead and her family is demanding answers after she received injections to enhance her buttocks, CBS News reports. Latesha Bynum, 32, went to a “doctor” practicing out of an apartment in the Gramercy Park neighborhood in New York. Within hours of having the procedure, Ms. Bynum had to be…
Metformin, generic Glucophage, was the fifth most frequently prescribed medication in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2016. PSM did a price comparison and found that the same prescription costs over three times as much in Canada as it does in the U.S….
In a television report for NBC Nightly News, Lester Holt and his investigative team were able to find Chinese-made, bulk fentanyl powder for sale on the Internet after searching for “buy fentanyl” online. When his crew sent an enquiry email to one of the listed sellers, they responded: “Hello, We have a very potent fentanyl…
In early July, European authorities reported that counterfeit versions of Omnitrope, a drug containing human growth hormone, were found in France, Denmark, and Mexico. The counterfeit Omnitrope was designed to look like it was made by a large drug manufacturer, but it contained no active ingredient. Shortly thereafter, German authorities announced that a fake version of a schizophrenia drug, Xeplion, was discovered in Germany. The Xeplion was also a knock-off, mimicking packaging used in Bulgaria and Romania.
These incidents are the latest in a stream of reports about counterfeit drugs throughout Europe. The problem lies in lax security of the supply chain — distributors, middlemen and wholesalers between the drug maker and the consumer. Despite ongoing problems with the EU drug supply chain, Congress is currently considering a bill that would open the U.S. to imports from the EU and elsewhere. We can’t have a serious debate about drug importation without understanding what is going on in Europe.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has just released their Internet Drug Outlet Identification Program Progress Report for State and Federal Regulators: August 2017, outlining the current state of fake online pharmacies that sell to U.S. patients.
Out of 11,688 Internet drug outlets reviewed, the NABP found that 11,142 (95.8%) were “operating out of compliance with state and federal laws and/or NABP patient safety and pharmacy standard practices.”
An August 23, 2017 editorial in the Journal of American of the American Medical Association (JAMA) supports President Trump’s stated intention to declare the nation’s opioid epidemic a national emergency.
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, yet at the same time, some federal lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make it legal to import drugs that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration into the United States from questionable sources. Such legislation would provide a gateway for international criminal organizations to import counterfeit prescription drugs and deadly illegal opioids, including fentanyl…
The August newsletter from the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) News describes how the Georgia Poison Center (GPC) played a crucial role in the early detection of deadly, fentanyl-laced fake Percocet in Georgia. NDEWS describes how a call from an emergency-room doctor triggered the process of identifying the cause of the poisonings and cases:…
A 24-year-old Bucks County, PA woman will spend up to 18 years in jail for selling counterfeit pills containing synthetic opioids that ended up killing two people. The fake pills looked like Percocet but contained fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl…
As reported by Tucson News Now, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Tempe Police Department uncovered 30,000 counterfeit pills made with fentanyl during a traffic stop on August 13, 2017…
Dr. Diana Anda Norbergs, a Florida oncologist convicted in November 2016 of importing misbranded, non-FDA approved cancer drugs from unlicensed suppliers, has been sentenced to almost six years in federal prison, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times. The Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment alleged that Norbergs purchased prescription cancer treatments from unlicensed foreign…
This Just In: Law Enforcement Groups Oppose Drug Importation Proposals Drug importation endangers patients and the American drug supply and worsens the opioid crisis “[T]he IACP is gravely concerned about the dangers law enforcement personnel and their canine drug detecting partners are subject to each time they come into contact with fentanyl [..] the IACP…
A Port Angeles, WA area naturopathic physician pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. Richard Marschall prescribed human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) to approximately 60 people for weight loss between February 2014 and February 2017.
Khaled Farouk Elgayar of North Olmstead, Ohio, has been charged in federal court with selling misbranded drugs, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reports. Elgayar purchased in bulk a variety of supposedly herbal supplements with names such as “African Superman,” “Hard Ten Days,” “Herb Viagra,” “libigrow,” “S.W.A.G” and “Triple PowerZEN,” for resale in the United States,…
Omeprazole is the generic version of Prilosec and it was the fourth most prescribed medication in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2016. We did a price check and were able to find it for sale at a U.S. pharmacy for almost 80% cheaper than in Canada…
Counterfeit pills containing fentanyl have been found in 40 states. Countless families grieve for the loved ones lost to the opioid epidemic. But what is fentanyl? How is it getting into the U.S.? What makes it so deadly? Who does fentanyl threaten the most and how can Americans protect themselves? The Partnership for Safe Medicines has created this infographic to answer many of the questions you may have about fentanyl and its dangers.
DEA agents suspect Mexican drug cartels are behind the wave over overdoses and deaths caused by fake Percocet pills made with fentanyl analogues. The DEA is exploring possible ties between the national wave of fake pain pills laced with fentanyl and Mexican crime organizations, reports Georgia news station Alive11. DEA Special Agent Dan Salter told…
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) awarded PetRescueRX, the nation’s only online pet pharmacy that donates 100% of their profits to animal shelters and nonprofit rescue groups, a .pharmacy domain.
The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis has released an interim report that strongly asserts that we, as a nation, are “in crisis.” The first recommendation from the Commission is for a national emergency to be declared. Other recommendations include…
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.