CHANGZHOU, China (AP) – On a dusty lane in east China, a small factory sitting amid strawberry and vegetable fields processes chemicals from pig guts into heparin, a commonly used blood thinner linked to 62 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions in the U.S. and Germany. The mysterious problems with heparin from the factory and others like it _ China's…

A Shanghai court jailed a man two years for selling 14,030 fake Viagra tablets via the Internet on Thursday. He was also fined 150,000 yuan (21,428 U.S. dollars). Yu Bohuai, a general manager of a Shanghai chemical company, had been purchasing fake drugs from a person named Xu Dong in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, at 5 yuan a pill,…

LONDON, April 10, 2008-The usual perception of counterfeit medicines is an illegal copy of a finished medicine slipped into the supply chain by illicit manufacturers. But the reality is far more complex and individual components, including excipients, are also vulnerable to counterfeiting. That is one reason why the European arm of the International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC Europe) made the…

Measures will be introduced before the end of the year to better control the supply of ingredients for medicines, especially those produced by chemical firms that have crossed over into the drugs market, Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman for the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), said Tuesday. The image of China's pharmaceutical industry overseas has been tarnished by a number of…

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced "sweeping" new legislation yesterday to protect consumers from unsafe products and tainted food and drugs, and warned companies that care more about their profits than their customers will face "severe" punishment. The proposed law would give the minister of health far-reaching new powers to pull products off the shelf after a series of high-profile voluntary…

The Food and Drug Administration has tripled the number of deaths it attributes to side effects of the blood thinner heparin, which triggered a massive recall earlier this year. The agency has been investigating contamination of heparin made by the manufacturer Baxter International Inc., which it linked to 19 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions. 8 April 2008 Read the…

The proliferation of counterfeit drugs on the global market and easy availability via online pharmacies is an increasing problem. The makers of counterfeit drugs have enjoyed and profited from loopholes in a system designed to deliver healthy medicines to those in need. The rising cost of prescription medications and the ubiquitous presence of online and overseas pharmacies means more people…

The proliferation of counterfeit drugs on the global market and easy availability via online pharmacies is an increasing problem. The makers of counterfeit drugs have enjoyed and profited from loopholes in a system designed to deliver healthy medicines to those in need. The rising cost of prescription medications and the ubiquitous presence of online and overseas pharmacies means more people…

DENVER – A Greek national has been indicted on charges of selling counterfeit prescriptions through Internet pharmacies. Gergios Xydeas, 47, was before the U.S. District Court in Denver Friday for a detention hearing after a three-year investigation of his pharmaceutical sales operation. Prosecutors alleges that Xydeas was involved in the operation of Internet pharmacies which sold thousands of counterfeit, misbranded…