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Lawrence Stowe and his co-conspirator Francisco Morales lured desperate patients with ALS and other neurological ailments to their clinic with promises of miracle cures. Instead unsuspecting patients were subjected to untested and bogus treatments that cost as much as $100,000 per patient. Lawrence Stowe, the so-called doctor referred to as a “21st Century snake oil salesman” in a 2010 episode…
Read MoreConfiscated fake drugs. Image courtesy of Ventura County Sheriff's Department. A tip called in to the local “Crime Stoppers” line informed the Ventura County Interagency Pharmaceutical Crimes Unit (VCIPCU) that fake drugs imported from Mexico were being sold in a local store in Santa Paula. Subsequent investigations led the VCIPCU to make arrests of 20 people throughout Ventura and Los…
Read MoreProfessor Dora Akunyili. Image courtesy of doraakunyilionline.org. Dr. Akunyili spearheaded Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) transformation into a modern food and drug enforcement agency, and was tireless in her fight against counterfeit medication in Nigeria. After a two-year battle with cancer, Nigeria’s Professor Dora Akunyili passed away on June 7, 2014, reported the Nigerian…
Read MoreA doctor in Texas sentenced to probation, and an oncology practice office manager in Kentucky has pleaded guilty to charges that they imported non-FDA approved cancer medication. Quality Specialty Products, the Canada Drugs-owned pharmaceutical wholesaler responsible for the importation of counterfeit Avastin, was implicated in both cases. In Laredo, Texas Dr. Eduardo Miranda was sentenced to 5 years probation and…
Read MoreOn December 20, 2013, Dr. Eduardo Miranda pleaded guilty to one count of introducing misbranded drugs into the country. Dr. Miranda specialized in treating patients with cancer. He ordered cancer drugs from Quality Specialty Products (QSP), a wholesale medication distributor and subsidiary of Canada Drugs. The drugs Dr. Miranda purchased were not approved for distribution or use in the U.S.…
Read MoreClick on Buttons Below To Report Crime Description of Criminal Investigation Agencies The US Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) conducts criminal investigations related to criminal violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Federal Anti-Tampering Act, and other related federal statutes. OCI investigations concentrate on significant violations of these laws, with a priority on…
Read MoreFull infographic available from the World Health Organization. The explosion of the global counterfeit drug trade has magnified antimicrobial resistance for ailments such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Now public health experts in the United Kingdom are calling for an organization bring together global expertise to fight the threat of drug resistance. The World Health Organization published a…
Read MoreThe National Crime Prevention Council has 7 tips for buying prescription drugs online. 1. Never purchase prescription drugs without your doctor's prescription. 2. Be familiar with the mediations you take, including the color, size, shape, taste and side effects. 3. Make sure the package or container the medication comes in has not been altered or the label changed. 4. Only…
Read MoreHematology and Oncology Center (HOC) PLLC and HOC’s former office manager, Natarajan Murugesan, pleaded guilty on June 18, 2014 to purchasing and selling unapproved and improperly labeled chemotherapy drugs. Between January 2010 and July 2011, Murugesan ordered non-FDA approved cancer treatments from Quality Speciality Products (QSP), a subsidiary of Canada Drugs that sold prescription medicines from countries that included Turkey,…
Read MoreThe European Medicines Agency (EMA) has reported two additional cancer treatments that have been illegally distributed, after their theft in Italy in April, 2014. Lots of two additional cancer medications, Avastin (bevacizumab), an injectable cancer treatment used for colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and kidney cancer and MabThera (rituximab), a treatment of cancers of the lymphatic system were found “distributed illegally…
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