After Nancy Kennedy, Linda Marks, Senior Litigation Counsel of the Consumer Protection Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice spoke. She also emphasized the international scale of the counterfeit drug problem.  Online reselling of unapproved, illegal and dangerous medications can have too much, too little, no, or the wrong active ingredient. General intellectual property crimes…

Moderator Brian Finlay introduced speakers for the Drawing Outside Domestic Lines, International Cooperation panel. "Counterfeit medicine is an international human security and serious compelling public health issue." Speaker Special Agent Nancy Kennedy with FDA-OCI handles drug investigations, included counterfeit medicines. Kennedy began by discussing international cooperation between MHRA, two southern European countries and the U.S.…

Partnership for Safe Medicines’ Executive Director Scott LaGanga introduced John Castellani, President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.  PhRMA leads more than 600,000 of America’s leading biopharmaceutical professionals who develop new medicines to help people live longer, healthier lives. He also introduced Ralph Neas, the President and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical…

John Roth, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations was the luncheon speaker at the Interchange, introduced by Partnership for Safe Medicine's Executive Director Scott LaGanga. Roth spoke on the FDA’s criminal priority areas, its recent experience (and challenges) with combatting counterfeiters, and more broadly about how criminal enforcement fits in with…

Moderator Linda Johnson, Pharmaceuticals and Health Business writer for The Associated Press, introduced Damon McCoy, researcher from George Mason University.   Said Johnson, "Through my work I’ve learned about the many implications that counterfeit drugs can have on the consumer.  So many people rely on and trust the drug supply chain for safe and effective…

The opening speaker for the 2012 Interchange was Scott T. Williams, Vice President of Men’s Health Network.  Men’s Health Network (MHN) is a national DC based non-profit organization, founded in 1992, whose mission is to reach men and their families where they live, work, play, and pray with health prevention messages and tools, screening programs, educational…

Partnership for Safe Medicines Executive Director Scott LaGanga welcomed participants to the third annual Interchange, where key stakeholders discuss and begin to solve the global problem of pharmaceutical counterfeiting. Said LaGanga, "We believe that by working together, we can come one step closer to protecting the pharmaceutical supply chain from dangerous counterfeit drugs." Following LaGanga,…

Sally Greenberg, the Executive Director of the National Consumers League, spoke on consumer concerns with counterfeit medications. She reviewed cases of counterfeit medicines that had damaged patients' health and spoke of their outrage and incredulity. She also discussed the fact that doctors can't identify fakes from real medication by looking at them, and that patients…

Anthony J. DeStefano, Ph.D. Sr. Vice President, Compendial Science at the United States Pharmacopeia spoke on technological strategies in protecting consumers from counterfeit medications. DeStefano delineated the many challenges to detection.  Said DeStefano, "About 80% of all active pharmaceutical ingredients are made outside the US, and detection of counterfeit or substandard products is often impossible to detect…

David Chen, Director, Pharmacy Practice Sections of the American Society of Health-system Pharmacists spoke after the morning break on Supply Chain Integrity. Chen spoke about the integrity of the drug supply chain and the stressors that create risky behaviors by consumers.  The stressors are affordability, disruptions, access and shortages, said Chen. The top three areas where…