In Europe, profiteers masquerading as pharmacists are selling unsafe, unregulated, mislabeled, repackaged, and commingled drugs to unsuspecting consumers, through a process known as parallel trade, or reimportation. By Peter Pitts November 1, 2005 Read the full story at heartland.org.

Laid out on a conference room table at Novartis's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, is a pile of pills. Pills to treat asthma, erectile dysfunction and diarrhea spill out of boxes labeled with well-known names of over-the-counter, prescription and generic drugs from around the world. The kinds of medicines people take every day to cure their sickness or make them feel…

LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has established a countrywide network of Drug Detection Units (DDUs), reliable sources within the agency told Daily Times on Saturday. The DDUs have been established with technical; assistance from the federal and provincial health departments of all four provinces. By Khawaja Naseer October 30, 2005 Read the full story at dailytimes.com.

Tomorrow, the director of this Houston clinic, the man at the center of the alleged vaccine scam, will be in court. Iyad Abu el Hawa faces at least ten years in prison if convicted on Medicare fraud charges. As many as 1600 employees of Exxon Mobil, as well as 14 residents of a nursing home, were injected with what apparently…

Baltimore, MD The cost of prescription drugs is generally high for the average American, and generally out of reach for the homeless and uninsured. Now a new potential program would collect dispensed, but unused prescription drugs that otherwise would be thrown away, and recycle them to those who can't afford it — for free. October 30, 2005 Read the full…

Phoenix Governor Napolitano has ordered the state's health-care program for the poor to expand a prescription-drug discount program making all Arizonans eligible to participate. October 28, 2005 Read the full story at kold.com.com.

Spammers are peddling drugs online that claim to combat bird flu. The junk mail campaigns tout offers to sell Tamiflu, the drug said to be the most effective in protecting humans from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, implicated in the deaths of dozens of people in Asia. The drug is in high demand because of fears the…

Concerned about apparent confusion between traditional seasonal flu and a possible avian flu pandemic, U.S. health officials stressed Monday that avian flu is not yet affecting humans to a great degree and has not yet arrived in the country. By Amanda Gardner, HealthDay News October 24, 2005 Read the full story at forbes.com.

When the dot-com bubble burst five years ago, hundreds of would-be Internet kingpins exited the industry in shame. But at least they were not wearing handcuffs. The same cannot be said for the online merchants caught in the latest bust – this one of a swindle, not a bubble. Late last month, federal drug investigators shut down 4,600 illegal Internet…