Source code: PharmaSecure goes mobile in battle against fake drugs
Counterfeit drugs affected people in 124 countries in 2011. Among them was India, where 20% of the drugs on the market are fake, according to the World Health Organisation. It’s a global war, hitting the developing world hard, says the Pharmaceutical, a not-for-profit network of the security divisions of 25 big pharma companies. Counterfeit drugs, which are also referred to as substitute or falsified drugs, are a $75bn-200bn market according to estimates by Deloitte. Roger Bate, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, calculates that at least 100,000 people, mainly in poor countries, die annually from fake drugs. Asia has the most confiscations, but data – the bulk of which is withheld by pharma companies and governments – is lacking and statistics are estimated. However, a 29-year-old from New Hampshire has decided to take on this battle from his office in a clock tower building in Gurgaon, in the Indian state of Haryana. Nathan Sigworth and a fellow Dartmouth College graduate, N Taylor Thompson, who has since left, founded PharmaSecure in 2007. Sigworth is now chief executive of the company, which is based in Gurgaon and Lebanon, New Hampshire, and prints unique codes on medicines to enable consumers to verify their validity and potency using their phones. PharmaSecure is not the only company providing medical authentications. Sproxil and Pedigree are also using mobile technology to authenticate drugs, but do not operate on the same scale as PharmaSecure, which will soon be operating beyond India and has produced more than 500bn coded packages. Up to 2m packages are coded every day, says Sigworth.
“Even though we’re churning out so many meds, we are still only saturating 5% of the Indian market. We are now working hard to make this scale,” he says. That means integrating with pharmaceuticals. It’s merely a matter of time, says Sigworth; pharma companies that previously printed codes on only three of their 17 medicines are now authenticating all of them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/may/09/source-code-pharmasecure-fake-drugs
Lear MoreFake mineral water floods city market
With summer round the corner, it’s soon going to be business time for the water mafia that controls the supply and distribution network of bottled water. As per industry estimates, almost 50% of the total water supplied in the name of ‘mineral’ or ‘RO-purified’ water in Gurgaon happens to be spurious. Bottled in highly unhygienic conditions in hutments or one-room establishments, with no water purifier machines, in and around slum dwellings, residents pay Rs. 75 for a 20-litre can of tap water. According to sources, there is a daily demand of 30,000 water jars in Gurgaon and 50% of it is met by unregulated and unauthorised suppliers. During peak summers, the demand touches 50,000 jars per day and the mafia would continue to rule the roost, said a distributor of a multi-national water company on condition of anonymity. Gurgaon civil surgeon Dr Praveen Garg said, “We are aware of the issue and have plans to check illegally-run water purifier plants and will soon assign teams to check compliance with ISI norms. A license process will be introduced soon. Registration of units with the health department would become mandatory and ISI certification would be top priority. Strict action will be taken against the guilty.” According to norms, a water plant should be spread over at least 1,500 square yard area and should have facilities like thermal sheet roof, air conditioned microbiology lab, cylinder room, two laboratories to test water, a special room to keep bottles, stainless steel water pipes and a water storage tank. “People are at risk of respiratory, kidney and digestive health diseases due to consumption of non-treated water being supplied by unauthorised water plants. There are around 40 illegal plants located in Gurgaon and surrounding areas,” said Dr Satish Yadav, an expert who was written the book ‘Water – Problem and its Management’. Gurgaon police commissioner KK Sindhu, meanwhile, promised strict action. “We will soon conduct raids and anyone found supplying fake water would be punished. We cannot compromise on health issues and water is a necessity.
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Police seize counterfeit Amway products
Police in Nanjing, in East China’s Jiangsu province, have seized 120,000 cartons of counterfeit Amway products worth more than 140 million yuan ($23 million), the biggest case since the US company entered the Chinese market in 1995. A report on the official website of People’s Daily, www.people.com.cn, said that nine sites were raided on April 2, with fake products seized and seven suspects arrested. Police then moved into seven provinces and destroyed various production and sales sites.
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-05/09/content_16488654.htm
Lear MoreMan, 85, tried to sell fake luxury handbags in West Boca, deputies say
At 85, Anthony Jenerosa Corbo was still working —peddling more than $200,000 in knockoff handbags and accessories from his car, Palm Beach County deputies say. Corbo bought counterfeit versions of high-end purses, watches and other accessories in New York’s Chinatown, then tried to sell them as the real thing at a strip mall parking lot in West Boca, according to a Sheriff’s Office arrest report. With brands like Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton, among others stuffed into his 2012 Toyota Scion, Corbo opened for business at 6 p.m. on April 24 on West Palmetto Park Road west of Powerline Road, deputies said. His freelance sales venture was short-lived, however. The operation unraveled about an hour later when an anonymous tipster approached a sheriff’s deputy on a bike patrol in the area. The tipster said something seemed suspicious about the elderly man trying to sell merchandise from his car.
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Pfizer sells Viagra online to combat fakes
Pfizer has launched a website to sell its erectile dysfunction blockbuster Viagra, in a bid to stop the sale of counterfeit pills from fake online pharmacies.The drugs giant says that the site, which is powered by CVS/pharmacy and accessible through Viagra.com, offers men in the USA with ED an opportunity to purchase Viagra (sildenafil) online with a valid prescription “from a trusted source”. Victor Clavelli, marketing group leader at Pfizer’s primary care business unit, noted that there are almost 24 million searches a year for Viagra online and “by offering men with ED convenient access and a legitimate alternative…our hope is that Pfizer will help rein in the distribution of fake ED products”.Matthew Bassiur, vice president of Pfizer Global Security, said that “we have seen counterfeit medicines manufactured in filthy and deplorable conditions, yet some people do not realise the risks that this poses to their health and safety, our top priority”. He noted that samples of counterfeit Viagra tested in the company’s labs have contained pesticides, wallboard, commercial paint and printer ink. In 2011, Pfizer Global Security evaluated 22 websites appearing in the top search results for the phrase “buy Viagra” and conducted chemical analysis of the pills advertised as Pfizer’s Viagra that were ordered from these outlets. The study found that about 80% of these pills were counterfeit, and while the fake Viagra pills contained sildenafil, the amount was only 30%-50% of what was advertised. The initiative will be closely watched by drugmakers, and indeed pharmacies and insurance firms, as the highly-unusual step of selling lifestyle treatments direct to patients may be seen by companies as an attractive proposition.
http://www.pharmatimes.com/Article/13-05-07/Pfizer_sells_Viagra_online_to_combat_fakes.aspx
Lear MoreFraudster millionaire jailed for selling fake bomb detectors
A British millionaire businessman, who made an “outrageous” 50 million pounds from sales of over 7,000 fake bomb detectors to countries, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, was jailed for 10 years today. James McCormick, 57, perpetrated a “callous confidence trick”, said the Old Bailey judge. The fraud “promoted a false sense of security” and contributed to death and injury, the judge said. He also described the profit as “outrageous”. Police earlier said the ADE-651 devices, modelled on a novelty golf ball finder, are still in use at some checkpoints. Sentencing McCormick, Judge Richard Hone said: “You are the driving force and sole director behind [the fraud].” “The device was useless, the profit outrageous, and your culpability as a fraudster has to be considered to be of the highest order,” the BBC quoted the judge as saying.
Fake cosmetics worth Rs 1 crore seized
You might be wondering why you are not getting the desired ‘googly-woogly wush’ cheeks despite repeatedly applying a particular cream bought in the state and its capital; because, it’s fake. A team comprising Patna police sleuths and the officials of the company making the original product conducted raid at a manufacturing unit at Noon ka Chauraha under Khajekala police station area in Patna City on Tuesday and seized fake products of Pond’s range worth Rs 1 crore.The company’s officials have been regularly checking retail shops selling the fake of its brand products in different localities of the town for the last couple of months. But after two years, the team could locate a factory producing such products in Patna City. Mustafa Hussain, an official of the company’s legal department, said, “The factories are located in densely populated residential areas. It becomes difficult to get the factories details but this time we succeeded in unearthing one factory. However, its owner, Mohammed Nazir Alam, managed to escape.
Lear MoreFake bike kit costing industry millions a year
Ten websites selling fake cycling kit such as counterfeit frames and jerseys have been shut down by US authorities – but one specialist has warned that the issue of fake goods is growing and costing the industry millions in lost revenue. Top American brand Specialized and Invista, the company behind Lycra and Coolmax fabric, worked with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers in Houston, Texas, to shut down the international sites this week. Officers seized more than US$90,000 (almost £60,000) in funds from PayPal and other accounts connected with the operations. However, Andrew Love, of Specialized’s Brand Security, Global Investigations, and Legal Enforcement department, told BikeRadar: “We’re under sustained attack right now.” Love, whose full time job is to hunt forgeries, shut down US$20,000 of counterfeit business in 2007 but saw that figure escalate to a massive US$5.2m in 2012. “We’re already halfway there this year,” he said, adding that quality of the counterfeits was “all over the place” but the best was improving all the time, making it harder for consumers to spot fakes.
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/fake-bike-kit-costing-industry-millions-a-year-37212/
Lear MoreFake branded cosmetics worth Rs 10 lakh seized
A team of Patna police, assisted by Hindustan Unilever Limited ( HUL) officials, on Saturday conducted raids at two cosmetics godowns at Nageshwar Colony under Buddha Colony police station area here and seized fake cosmetics of the nationally reputed brands worth Rs 10 lakh. The godown owner, Deepak Kumar, has been arrested and an FIR lodged against him. The seized products included shampoos, body lotions, face packs, face creams, cohol and mascara, hand wash, make-up kits, hair colour, baby diapers, shaving kits, detergents, dental products and hair products. SSP, Patna, Manu Maharaj, said after the raids, “Police will take stringent action against persons involved in the business of fake cosmetics. Such cosmetics are dangerous for health, so we will ensure that a chargesheet is filed at the earliest. The police will also ensure that this business is stopped permanently.” Murtaja Hussain, an official of the HUL’s legal department, said, “Many shops in the heart of the city also openly retail such fake products. But sealing the godowns was important as their owners are the suppliers of such products in Patna market.” State drug controller Hemant Kumar Sinha said, “Most of the seized products are made in Delhi or Ludhiana but carry the labels of a number of foreign brands. Low-quality skincare products might damage the skin. The fake branded cosmetics have found their way not only to small outlets but also the supermarkets and malls.” Some products are even made locally. Hussain said, “Earlier also, we had helped police seize such fake cosmetics from various reputed stores in the city. But we failed to bust the factories where such products are made.” When the cosmetics company officials surveyed the local market, they were surprised to find the stores full with their products. But there was no matching demand from the company of the products from Patna market. “We sent the samples of various products to laboratories to check their genuineness. Only after getting reports from the laboratories that the products were fake, we helped the police seal the godowns and stores dealing in them,” said Hussain.
Lear MoreFDA develops handheld device to spot fake malaria drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that U.S. partners in Ghana will begin using a federally developed handheld device to screen for fake or diluted versions of two common malaria pills.
More than a third of malaria-fighting pills used in Africa and Asia are either fake or bad quality, according to a study released last year. Rampant drug counterfeiting has undermined efforts to fight the mosquito-borne disease, which causes fever, chills and flu-like illness. Malaria kills more than 660,000 people each year, more than 90 percent of them in Africa.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fda-develops-handheld-device-to-spot-fake-malaria-drugs/
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