Free Republic

Two citizens of Ukraine have admitted they conspired to smuggle and distribute counterfeit cancer and hepatitis drugs into the United States, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt and U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas.Maksym Nienadov, 36, is the owner of the Ukrainian-based company Healthy Nation. He and his co-conspirator and employee – Volodymyr Nikolaienko, 33 – pleaded guilty today to conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit drugs and smuggling goods into the United States. Nienadov also admitted to introducing misbranded drugs into the United States.   In June 2018, undercover U.S. authorities began communicating with Nienadov...

IN 2007-8, when counterfeit versions of heparin, a blood-thinning drug, were shipped from China to the United States market, 149 people died. In the last few months, bogus versions of the cancer drug Avastin, apparently shipped from the Middle East, have surfaced in clinics in California, Illinois and Texas. Thankfully, so far as we know, they haven’t killed anyone, but more and more cases of dangerous fake drugs are being reported by the Food and Drug Administration. Numerous incidents surely go unreported, the evidence swallowed, the deaths incorrectly attributed to natural causes. Fighting the fake-drug menace is like playing whack-a-mole....

New Delhi – Anecdotal reports by health-care workers in Africa and Southeast Asia reveal a worrying new trend: Drugs successfully used for years to combat malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV are failing more and more often. Misdiagnosis of disease, coupled with the (related) misuse and overuse of drugs, likely plays a role, especially in resource-constrained countries where scientific diagnostic tests are unavailable or too expensive to be practical. But many doctors suspect another culprit: counterfeit drugs. Nothing is more dangerous for a poor patient with a potentially fatal disease than taking drugs that do not work. Not only can faulty drugs...

Half an hour before dawn, the semi-detached house, like the rest of the silent East Midlands town, is in darkness. Two investigators, search warrant at the ready, approach the front door, while a man with a battering ram takes up position. There has already been a 6am briefing session at the local police station, and the raid has a code name - Operation Mexico.   But the investigators about to move into the house are not police officers. They belong to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) intelligence and enforcement unit, a small specialist group that seeks to...

The European Commission has released figures showing that there has been a dramatic and concerning increase in pharmaceutical counterfeiting, with seizures in Europe hitting an all time high of over 2.5m items. 2005 only saw seizures totalling around half a million items, but the figures for 2006 have revealed a hefty increase, causing concern at the European Commission due the potential health and safety risks associated with fake pharmaceuticals. The most popular targets for counterfeiters over 2006 were Pfizer's blockbuster drug Viagra (sildenafil citrate), Eli Lilly's Cialis (tadalafil) and Bayer's Levitra (vardenafil) - all products for the treatment of erectile...

    Bird flu is on the wing in Asia, Africa and Europe. It is only a matter of time before it arrives in North America. Yet the supply of effective drugs everywhere is undermined by a plague of counterfeits for which governments are to blame.     The deadly H5N1 strain of the virus may not mutate into a form that can be transmitted between people, but people are right to be worried. The best drugs we have may be rendered useless by counterfeiters and complicit officials.     Fake drugs are a booming business in many poorer parts of the world, worth about $35...

<p>Marilyn Arons had been taking cholesterol-lowering Lipitor pills for 2 1/2 months before she made an unnerving discovery.</p> <p>They were bogus.</p> <p>She found out only after hearing about a recall of millions of counterfeit tablets of the nation's most popular prescription drug. "It bothered me that the pharmacist said, 'If you weren't harmed by it, it doesn't make a difference.' It makes a big difference," Arons said.</p>