PSM in the news

Summer 2024

"In the best-case scenario, consumers just lose their money. In the worse scenario, you end up with medications that are potentially harmful." 

 

"Any counterfeit medication can be dangerous, but fake Ozempic poses a particularly high risk because it is injected. It’s extremely tricky to manufacture sterile injectable drugs."

"The fervor around weight-loss medicines — and shortage in availability to fill — has created unique loopholes for bad actors like counterfeiters and less reputable compounding pharmacies to exploit."

"The second problem we're seeing is poorly compounded medications distributed through incredibly unsafe sources like Etsy, of all places...and who knows what in them. It's very dangerous to inject yourself with them."

"If you see fake Ozempic now you see it online. Always walk into a real bricks and mortar pharmacy to be as safe as possible."

"The FDA has said they have had several reports of medical adverse events from people who have taken compounded versions of these medications."

""Despite regulatory safeguards, the U.S. has seen an alarming growth in fake medications."

"The danger of counterfeit therapeutics is still not considered a public health crisis. Doctors are woefully misinformed about the safety of the drug supply."

  • Shabbir Safdar, quoted in "Fake drugs, real dangers," Kellie Schmitt, Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine, Spring/Summer 2024