[Ip-health] Time- How to Stop the Counterfeit-Medicine Drugs Trade

[Terri - Louise Beswick]

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How to Stop the Counterfeit-Medicine Drugs Trade


By Peter Gumbel / Paris <javascript:void(0)>  Thursday, Oct. 08, 2009



The next time you're tempted to buy Viagra, Lipitor or some other medicatio=
n online, ponder this: there's a high likelihood that what you buy will be =
fake. The pill or vaccine may contain a much smaller dosage than stated, or=
 it may lack any active ingredient whatsoever. Worst of all, it could be to=
xic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 50% of dru=
gs sold online have either been falsified or altered in some way. And Inter=
net sales are just the tip of a much bigger problem. Falsified medicines ar=
e especially prevalent in developing countries; the WHO estimates that up t=
o 30% of drugs sold in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America are fake, in=
cluding ones used to fight diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

The issue has long been a preoccupation of major pharmaceutical companies, =
which lose as much as $75 billion in business every year to counterfeit-dru=
g makers, according to WHO estimates. In 2002, the industry set up a Washin=
gton-based agency called the Pharmaceutical Security Industry, run by Thoma=
s Kubic, a former FBI deputy assistant director, to try to tackle the probl=
em. And four years later, the WHO launched an international task force dedi=
cated to the issue. But so far, such efforts have merely highlighted the gr=
owing trade. The Pharmaceutical Security Industry tracked more than 1,800 i=
ncidents of drug-counterfeiting around the world last year, 10 times the nu=
mber when it first started monitoring seven years ago. Getting governments =
and law enforcers around the world to work more effectively to counter the =
problem has proved hard. (See the top 10 product recalls.) <http://www.time=
.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1908719_1908717_1908529,00.html=
>

But that may be starting to change. On Monday, the Presidents of two Africa=
n countries, Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin and Blaise Compaor=E9 of Burkina Fas=
o, will be among a cluster of international dignitaries and industry expert=
s who will make an international call for action against counterfeit drugs =
in Cotonou, Benin. The initiative is the brainchild of Jacques Chirac, the =
former French President, who wants to make the Cotonou declaration the firs=
t step of a worldwide campaign aimed at raising awareness of the problem an=
d persuading governments to impose tougher penalties and improve routine te=
sting of medications. The larger goal is to establish an international conv=
ention on counterfeit drugs as early as next year. Marc Gentilini, a French=
 medical professor and expert on tropical diseases who is advising Chirac, =
says the problem is urgent. The lack of clear international rules governing=
 counterfeit medicines, he says, means that trafficking them is currently "=
less risky and more lucrative than trafficking narcotics."

Certainly, there's now an abundance of evidence of brazen criminal activity=
. More than 80 babies in Nigeria died earlier this year from teething medic=
ine that contained the toxic coolant diethylene glycol. In July, authoritie=
s in Bangladesh seized supplies of a poisonous acetaminophen syrup that had=
 killed 24 children. In Argentina, several women died in 2004 after receivi=
ng injections of a falsified iron-based medicine to treat anemia. And in 20=
06 more than 100 people in Panama died after taking medicines made with fak=
e glycerin. Many times, the counterfeit drugs just don't work. This leads t=
o a large number of preventable deaths, particularly in the developing worl=
d. (Read "The Desperate Need for New Antibiotics.") <http://www.time.com/ti=
me/health/article/0,8599,1926853,00.html>

The problem is not limited to poor countries, however. When Pfizer recalled=
 120,000 packs of its cholesterol drug Lipitor in Britain in 2005 after it =
discovered a counterfeit version, it found that 60% of all the returned pac=
ks were fakes. Jacques Franquet, who heads security operations for the Fren=
ch drugmaker Sanofi Aventis, says his teams routinely find fake versions of=
 about 15 of the company's drugs worldwide.

The major pharmaceutical companies have been at the forefront of the campai=
gn to crack down on the problem. All have growing security divisions that t=
rack illegal medicine-trafficking and gather evidence to give to law-enforc=
ement agencies to help them take action. Pfizer has also started experiment=
ing with safer packaging. For example, all its Viagra blockbuster packs in =
the U.S. now have a radio-frequency-identification tag. Merck, meanwhile, i=
s funding the distribution of minilabs to developing countries to improve d=
etection of fake ingredients in drugs used to combat malaria, HIV and tuber=
culosis.

But experts say governments also need to step up enforcement of laws in ord=
er to effectively tackle the problem. The U.S. and Britain have special pol=
ice units to deal with falsified medication, but most other countries lag b=
ehind, Franquet says. Kubic says that political efforts to fight the proble=
m have flagged in recent years, mainly because countries like India and Bra=
zil fear that the large amounts of generic drugs they produce legally may b=
e mistakenly targeted in a global crackdown on fake-drug-trafficking. (Read=
 "Are Direct-to-Consumer Drug Ads Doomed?") <http://www.time.com/time/busin=
ess/article/0,8599,1876679,00.html>

The Chirac initiative is treading carefully at the start. Organizers make c=
lear that the Cotonou declaration isn't aimed at generics. And they avoid u=
sing the word counterfeit since this term is often associated with intellec=
tual-property issues and could lead some to believe that the initiative is =
aimed at protecting pharmaceutical companies' profits, not safeguarding pub=
lic health. Franquet says it's important for public opinion to be mobilized=
 against fake medicines, and he believes that given the sometimes tragic co=
nsequences, this should be easy to accomplish. "This is one of the rare are=
as where the public is on our side," he says.

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