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On June 17, 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released results of a purchase of supposed “generic Tamiflu” from an online pharmacy. According to the FDA, the pharmacy was likely an illegitimate operation, and the product was not Tamiflu, as it lacked its active ingredient. Full details from the FDA.
Read MoreThe Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) commends mainstream search engines Microsoft and Yahoo for their recent decision requiring U.S. pharmaceutical advertisers to be accredited by the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program in order to advertise online. Google was the first engine to require pharmaceutical advertisers to be VIPPS-accredited, a move the PSM commended and encouraged other search engines…
Read MoreOn May 27, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) held an event to address intellectual property (IP) rights, a discussion that extended to issues of counterfeit and substandard medicines in developing parts of the world. PSM Executive Director Scott LaGanga moderated a panel discussion with Sproxil’s Ashifi Gogo, Dr. Vishal Patel of the U.S. Department of…
Read MoreLast month, representatives from all over the world discussed the dangers posed by counterfeit medicines at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The problem is growing. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that more than half of all medicines bought online are counterfeit. U.S. experts say there is no one solution. Read full article
Read MoreT.D Minister for Health Mary Harney Attends International Dialogue with Leading Industry, Health, Government Officials, Regulators, Law Enforcement and Patient Advocates DUBLIN (June 4, 2010) – Citing a growing, public and borderless health threat posed by the availability of primarily counterfeit prescription medicines around the globe, the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) today joined with the Irish Patients Association (IPA)…
Read MoreOn May 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) led a foreign mail inspection in West Miami-Dade, Fla., designed to weed out thousands of counterfeit and unapproved medicines and stop them from entering the country. The three-day search had agents poring over packages of illegal pharmaceutical drugs, dietary supplements and home remedies mailed from foreign countries. Reporting on the…
Read MoreAs incidents and awareness surrounding illicit and counterfeit drugs grows, so too do the programs and technologies to combat them. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be examining just that: anti-counterfeit technologies and the programs designed to support them. While there’s no silver bullet technology or program to mitigate the global threat of counterfeit drugs, a combination of technologies, programs…
Read MoreView larger map A Philadelphia resident pleaded guilty to an 18 count indictment for the illegal importation and distribution of four million fake diet pills that contained unapproved drugs and carcinogens. The pills "caused significant side effects in some individuals, including nausea, vomiting, elevated blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes." Who: Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, the…
Read More"For export only" anti-inflammatory and lightening creams are medicinal products sold in African countries for their skin whitening action. In the last years, Rapid Alerts from European Medicinal Regulatory Agencies evidenced the presence of a large number of illegal and counterfeit anti-inflammatory products advertised for their whitening action on black skin in the European market. These drugs, containing glucocorticoids, are…
Read MoreEarlier today, the Guardian’s Technology Blog posted a malware roundup to alert readers of scams and spam making their way around the Internet. Disturbingly, author Chris Arthur found that a known rogue pharmacy has set up shop on Twitter. The Official Canadian Pharmacy at Canadian-Drugshop.com uses the Twitter handle @canadianshop to boldly display its offerings, including “bestsellers” like erectile dysfunction…
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