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Abstract Medicine counterfeiting is a serious worldwide issue, involving networks of manufacture and distribution that are an integral part of industrialized organized crime. Despite the potentially devastating health repercussions involved, legal sanctions are often inappropriate or simply not applied. The difficulty in agreeing on a definition of counterfeiting, the huge profits made by the counterfeiters and the complexity of the…
Read MoreAbstractThis retrospective study reports data obtained from the National Institute of Criminalistics of the Brazilian Federal Police Department (DPF) on 3676 anabolic products seized between 2006 and 2011. Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) were declared on the labels of 96.2% of the products. About one third of the products declared to be from Paraguay, and 14.3% from Brazil. Stanozolol, testosterone and…
Read MoreAbstract: The article reports on a 2013 decision which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and several other international law enforcement and regulatory agencies made to take legal and regulatory action against more than 9,600 web sites from various countries that illegally market unproven prescription drugs to consumers. "Operation Pangea VI: combating sale of unapproved medicines." WHO Drug Information 27,…
Read MoreAbstract: Criminal syndicates and terrorist organizations are inherently different, one motivated by profit and the other by political goals. Yet their difference enables them to cooperate for their mutual benefit. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the drug trade; from harvesting and trafficking in illegal substances, it has been an easy transition to counterfeiting and disseminating medications. Hezbollah, in…
Read MoreBackgroundDigital forms of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing (eDTCA) have globalized in an era of free and open information exchange. Yet, the unregulated expansion of eDTCA has resulted in unaddressed global public health threats. Specifically, illicit online pharmacies are engaged in the sale of purportedly safe, legitimate product that may in fact be counterfeit or substandard. These cybercriminal actors exploit available eDTCA…
Read MoreAbstract: The World Health Organization has reported that counterfeit medicines potentially make up more than 50% of the global drug market, with a significant proportion of these fake products being encountered in developing countries. This occurrence is attributed to a lack of effective regulation and a weak enforcement capacity existing in these countries, with an increase in this trade resulting…
Read MoreAims and objectives. To gain information concerning disparities in the understanding of the counterfeit medicines phenomenon between healthcare workers and lay persons. Background. Central-eastern Europe is facing significant challenges in combating a multi-billion euro, and often lethal, trade in counterfeit medicines. It is a major challenge especially for primary healthcare workers to expand the understanding of counterfeit medicines to the…
Read MoreJim Hood, Attorney General for the state of Mississippi and head of the National Association of Attorneys General tells Bloomberg that he is stepping up demands from Google that they demonstrate their commitment to block fake online pharmacies. Bloomberg reports that Attorney General Jim Hood has demanded information from Google to determine if the company is profiting from native search…
Read MoreA director of Ozay Pharmaceuticals, the Turkish drug distributor responsible for one of the infiltrations of counterfeit cancer medication into the secure U.S. drug supply chain, has pleaded guilty to charges related to the importation of counterfeit Avastin and other counterfeit cancer medications into the United States. Turkish national Ozkan Semizoglu pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling counterfeit, adulterated and…
Read MoreFayez Al-Jabri of Chicago acted as a black market wholesaler, importing thousands of doses of fake pills from China for further distribution. A Chicago resident has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for his role in importing for sale over 26,000 doses of counterfeit ED medication into the United States, reports the Department of Justice (DOJ). Along with his…
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