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A pharmacist in Tennessee named Robert Harshbarger has pleaded guilty to charges he replaced FDA-approved iron sucrose for use in kidney dialysis with unapproved foreign versions of the drug which he then sold to kidney dialysis clinics, including Kansas Dialysis Services. Several patients at Kidney Dialysis Services were treated with the misbranded drugs, but none reported side effects. The iron…
Read MoreDear Speaker Boehner and Chairman Upton:
On behalf of the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), we write today in strong support of H.R.
1919, the “Safeguarding America’s Pharmaceuticals Act”.
PSM is a not for profit, consumer focused organization that seeks to
keep Americans safe from counterfeit drugs through patient and healthcare
provider education and awareness. In
the US we work with a coalition of over 70 healthcare professional and patient
groups to improve patients’ and their
healthcare providers’ knowledge about where they obtain their medication, how
they can save money safely, and how to safely identify licensed pharmaceutical
distributors.
PSM strongly supports the creation of a national uniform track and trace
or pedigree system that would allow all participants in the supply chain to
verify a product’s history of sale.
Malaria Medication in Nigeriaby World Bank Photo via Flickr.
Read MoreChinese pharmaceutical manufacturer Guilin Pharmaceuticals is rolling out SMS-text message codes on packaging to ensure authenticity of its antimalarial medication in Nigeria.
Guilin’s artesunate meets world-wide quality assurance standards and has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Prequalification Programme applies unified standards of quality, safety and efficacy to medicinal products and includes manufacturing inspections, and evaluation of ingredients. Though the program is mainly used by UNAIDS and UNICEF to guide procurement, other agencies use it as a guide to determine safety at an international level, reports the WHO.
Now, purchasers of the medication can guard against purchasing counterfeit versions by scratching off a hidden identification code on drug packages. Patients can send the code via text message to a computer that will send back a safety message if the package is authentic, reports The Financial Times.
Read MoreNigerian Children Killed By Contaminated Teething Medicine What: A toxic chemical mixed into a teething medicine for babies has killed at least 84 children in Nigeria as of February 16, 2009. The children died after taking My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture, a syrup for teething pain, according to Nigeria’s Health Ministry. Health officials said that a batch of the medicine…
Read MoreThe Partnership For Safe Medicines Interchange Archive Since 2010, SAFEMEDICINES has hosted the Interchange to assess the state of counterfeit medication globally, and bring together stakeholders from government, industry, medicine, science, and patient advocacy to come up with solutions to the problem of counterfeit drugs. The archives for past Interchanges can be found below.
Read MoreThe FDA has released more information about their new counterfeit drug detection device, Counterfeit Detection Device 3 (CD-3). In this newly-released video, Nico Ranieri, the FDA research biologist who developed this new technology talks about how important such innovations are to patient safety.
In
2005, it first occurred to Nicolas Ranieri to try to use the type of
ultra-violet light devices deployed in crime scene investigations in a
hand-held counterfeit drug detection device.
Up to that point, drug testing equipment was both delicate, expensive, and
also required highly-trained scientists to
perform the tests for fakes. Says
Ranieri, “We wanted to find counterfeits, and we wanted to find them as fast as
possible,” reports the FDA.
Rx360 has launched a new campaign educating healthcare providers to the risks of buying diverted and suspect products advertised directly to doctors’ offices via fax blast, direct email and online marketing.
Lewis T. Kontnik, team lead for the education campaign, says, “Some of the recent
problems with counterfeit and diverted medicines in the US, including
the counterfeit versions of Avastin, resulted in part from a lack of
awareness by physicians and medical practice administrators
of the risks of counterfeit and diverted medicines. The ads of the
professional diverters can appear tempting when they promise ‘genuine’ medicine and substantial discounts, however the facts are different and
the consequences can be very serious.”
Click on the image to download the flyer.
Read MoreWhen London police raided an apartment in west London last month, they were looking for visa cheats. What they found instead was over $750,000 worth of counterfeit medications stored in deplorable conditions.
A raid by Home Office Immigration Enforcement officers in West London that was aimed at catching people who had overstayed their visas instead found a vast quantity of unlicensed prescription medications, reports the MHRA. Investigators from the MHRA believe the drugs, which were mostly ED, weight loss, and hair loss treatments, were manufactured in India. Anabolic steroids were also found in the raid.
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