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Each year, Partnership for Safe Medicines Vice President Dr. Bryan Liang hosts a health policy conference in San Diego. We’re happy to report that all seats have been filled for his March 26, 2010 conference, “Pharmaceutical Crime: Investigating and Prosecuting Drug Diversion and Counterfeiting,” sponsored by the Institute of Health Law Studies at the California Western School of Law. The…
Read MoreNigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has launched a text messaging service that can verify whether a drug is counterfeit or the real thing. The Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) allows anyone in Nigeria to check the authenticity of their medicines. How it works: A card attached to each medicine pack reveals a unique 12-digit code…
Read MoreThe number of illegal internet pharmacies selling prescription-only medicines without a prescription is increasing. Large quantities of drugs are dispensed, making drugs of abuse readily available, and further risks are posed by counterfeit medication. Urgent national and international action is required to stop further proliferation of illegal pharmacies. Watching Internet Pharmacies
Read MoreThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received warning of nearly 12,000 kits of ClindaReach® Pledgets, (Clindamycin Phosphate Topical Solution UPS, 1%), a topical acne treatment, which were stolen from a tractor-trailer on or around February 7, 2010 while in transit. The theft occurred in Monroe, Ohio. According to the manufacturer, Sirius—a wholly owned subsidiary of DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.—the stolen…
Read MoreIf you’re familiar with the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), you’re familiar with our goal: to mitigate the threat of counterfeit and unsafe medicines to patients. The internet and social media have been both a hindrance to our efforts—giving legs to unlicensed online pharmacies, search engine advertising and spam—and a help—providing a tool for outreach and advocacy efforts, all while…
Read MoreThe appearance of counterfeit medicines in supply chains is a global public health problem that may seriously affect patients. Counterfeit drugs do not meet quality standards and do not declare their real composition and/or source for the purposes of fraud. They may be generic or innovative, they may contain genuine constituents in a fake packaging, or wrong ingredients, or inactive…
Read MoreNearly four years ago, Americans were warned against buying prescription drugs from Web sites linked to Canada’s biggest mail-order pharmacies, Mediplan Prescription Plus Pharmacy—also known as RxNorth—after laboratory tests of intercepted shipments detected counterfeits. Among the counterfeits were widely prescribed medications for heart disease and cholesterol. At the time, Mediplan’s Founder and President Andrew Strempler criticized FDA and the pharmaceutical…
Read MoreAn HPLC-UV method has been developed for the determination of valibose, miglitol, voglibose and acarbose, the four anti-diabetic drugs. The separation was accomplished successfully by using reversed phase chromatography (Prevail carbohydrate column, 250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) with a gradient acetonitrile-phosphate buffer solution (pH 8.0) at a wavelength of 210 nm. Furthermore, the method of a high-performance liquid…
Read MoreAt the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), we've long cautioned consumers about the dangers of counterfeit drugs—a growing issue affecting all corners of the globe. Now, the Pfizer-commissioned study, "Cracking Counterfeit Europe," has estimated that the counterfeit medicines market in Europe is worth more than $14 billion. The investigation, which covered 14 European countries, comes weeks after the vice president…
Read MoreWASHINGTON, DC – Feb. 10, 2010 – The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) today commended Google for its updated policy on U.S. pharmaceutical advertising through its paid search program, AdWords. Toward the end of the month, Google will refine its advertising model to accept ads only from online pharmacies in the U.S. that are accredited by the National Association Boards…
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