Washington, D.C. (July 24, 2020) – Shabbir Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, released the following statement in response to President Trump’s executive order signed today on the importation of prescription drugs:
A pair of men from Ukraine admitted in federal court that they conspired to smuggle and distribute counterfeit cancer and hepatitis C drugs into the United States. Maksym Nienadov, the owner of the Ukrainian-based company Healthy Nation, and his co-conspirator and employee – Volodymyr Nikolaienko – pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston, Texas to conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit drugs and smuggling goods into the country.
The FDA has issued 70 recalls/warnings at last count for hand sanitizers made with deadly wood alcohol (methanol). Substantial methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death.
PSM’s round-up this week includes fake PPE and COVID-19 treatments, deaths and hospitalizations related to hand sanitizer made of methanol, fentanyl pill seizures, and guilty pleas from two Ukrainian men who sold counterfeit cancer and hepatitis treatments to U.S. agents.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up and passed H.R. 5663, the Safeguarding Therapeutics Act, today.
Importing medicine from Canada is more dangerous than it looks because it is so difficult to prosecute fake or substandard drug sellers. Legislators and their consultants make it sound as if holding a foreign vendor accountable will be easy, but history has shown that the U.S. federal government, with all of its agreements, power, and resources, still struggles to bring criminals to justice.
AAA is recalling all lots of their hand sanitizer due to the presence of undeclared methanol (wood alcohol) in their hand sanitizer products.
PSM continues to monitor public reports of dangerous counterfeit medical supplies and treatments. This week’s round-up includes news of COVID-19 scammers in the U.S. and overseas, fake pill traffickers in Arizona, South Carolina and Connecticut, and more.
4e Brands of San Antonio, Texas is recalling all lots of their hand sanitizer due to the presence of undeclared methanol (wood alcohol) in their hand sanitizer products.
In 2007, McLeod Cancer and Blood Center in Johnson City, Tennessee began buying medicine from Quality Specialty Products, a company that sold medicine from foreign sources that had not been inspected or approved by the FDA.
McLeod was just one of more than 900 U.S. medical practices caught buying non-FDA approved cancer drugs. Learn more about this ugly episode in black market medicines in this week’s video.