On April 15, 2011, Kurt Walter Donsbach, 75, of San Diego, was sentenced to a year in county jail and probation of ten years after pleading guilty in December to 13 felony charges including unlawfully selling fake drugs to cancer patients, practicing medicine without a license and attempted grand theft.
On April 18, 2011, a Maryland woman was charged in federal court with selling large numbers of counterfeit erectile dysfunction medication to undercover agents. Sarah Ann Knott, 28, of Waldorf, told an undercover postal inspector that she could sell thousands of ED pills in a matter of months and kept them out of reach of…
FDA officials are reminding pet owners to verify their online pharmacy’s authenticity before purchasing heartworm medication for their pets this spring. With spring comes heartworms, and pet owners now go to purchase the potentially expensive medication necessary for the health of domestic pets. However, unsuspecting consumers could be giving their pets counterfeit medications which will…
In Accra, Ghana, scientists from the national laboratories of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Sierra Leon, are being trained this week to use the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention’s database of medicine samples in order to better identify falsified and counterfeit medicines that plague their countries’ marketplaces. U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a nonprofit public health organization…
Scott LaGanga, Executive Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, will address pharmaceutical scientists from industry, government, academia, and others on the topic of counterfeiting and patient safety on August 18, 2011 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy conference entitled, “The Role of CMC Quality in Ensuring Patient Safety: From Development through Commercialization.”…
Chinese police have seized 14,185 suspects since November, 2010, in a campaign to halt the trade in counterfeit goods, including software, food, drugs, and luggage. The Ministry of Public Security announced April 12, 2011, that the suspects were involved in more than 8,000 investigations into counterfeiting and 7,000 production and sales outlets, reported China Daily.…
Japanese police arrested two people for allegedly selling fake drugs to protect from radiation exposure in Tokyo. Natsumi Chiba, 29, and Fumitaka Umewaka, 50, allegedly sold “Premium Zeolite,” advertising it as a substance that absorbs and removes radiation from the body. Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department said that they sold the drug online to people in…
The World Health Assembly (WHA) held a drug counterfeiting session in Geneva, Switzerland, where Dr. Paul Orhii, vice-chair of the 193 member-nation International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (IMPACT) based in Geneva rallied members to come to consensus and move forward to fight the drug safety problems caused by fake medication distribution. Orhii, also Director-General…
2011 World Health Day was commemorated by WHO regional director, Luis Gomes Sambo, by urging leaders to fight drug resistance by removing counterfeit medicine, bad prescribing habits and over exposure to sub-optimal quantities of medications. “If not properly managed, resistant germs may spread and cause severe diseases. However, attempts have been made to overcome drug…
After being convicted of conspiring to traffic fake medication, En Wang, 32, owner of a Houston based company, while free on bond, fled the country prior to his sentencing. Wang was sentenced in absentia to 33 months in federal prison without parole on March 28, 2011. Homeland Security Investigators believe that Wang left the US…