One in three drugs fake in Arab world
A GCC health official has called for strict penalties on countries and companies found engaged in exporting or importing adulterated and counterfeit drugs in order to curb the spread of such drugs in Arab countries.
Director General of the Executive Office of the Council of Ministers of Health of the Gulf Cooperation Council Tewfiq Ahmed Khoja said 35 percent of medicines circulated in some Arab countries are fake — in other words, one in every three drugs is counterfeit.
Khoja, who was addressing the 2nd Arab conference on foods and drugs in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, attributed the rising rate of adulterated drugs to poor monitoring by regulatory bodies which are supposed to protect the market from such drugs.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/734171
Lear MoreSolon seeks probe on fake antibiotics
A lawmaker proposed an investigation on the proliferation of a counterfeit antibiotic drug that may cause harm to people’s health. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a warning about the fake Klarid Clarithromycin being sold in the market. In its advisory, FDA confirmed that one of the variants of the antibiotic Clarithromycin 250 mg/5 mL is a counterfeit drug after pharmaceutical firm Abbott Laboratories studied it and compared it with other registered drugs.
Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo filed House Resolution 1990, to direct the Committees on Dangerous Drugs and Health to conduct an inquiry into the recent warning.
Van driver admits to delivering thousands of illegal cigarettes to Blaydon buyers
A van driver has admitted selling thousands of smuggled cigarettes to Tyneside buyers after being stopped leaving the region. A carrier bag stuffed with £23,385 of cash was found in David Walker’s Ford Transit when he was pulled over at the A1 Washington Services on the morning of February 20 last year. HMRC officers had followed the 48-year-old, and another man, after watching them crack deals in trading estates and a cafe in Blaydon, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
In total, 240,000 cigarettes had been sold in Tyneside minus the legal duty required, meaning £53,895 never found its way to the Treasury.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/van-driver-admits-delivering-thousands-9069586
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Student smuggled 33,800 cigarettes from Poland through Scots airports
A student caught smuggling 33,800 cigarettes into Scotland from Poland claimed they were for her and her partner. Iwona Monica Kowal, a student from Dundee, was caught on three separate occasions by UK Border Agency staff after flying from Poland into Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports.
She was caught with a total of 33,800 cigarettes stuffed into her baggage, Paisley Sheriff Court heard. The Excise Duty on the haul would have been £9241.
Depute fiscal Frank Clarke said that after being intercepted carrying 15,800 contraband cigarettes Kowal was subsequently quizzed by officers of HM Revenue & Customs as she flew into Glasgow Airport on April 8, 2013.
Lear MoreHong Kong Customs to work with Guangdong counterparts to crack down on cigarette smuggling
Hong Kong Customs will seek help from their mainland counterparts to investigate a cross-border syndicate after making their biggest seizure of smuggled cigarettes this year. The HK$4.9 million haul of untaxed cigarettes was discovered hidden in two shipping containers which arrived from Guangdong by sea on Thursday.
“The containers were declared to have carried electronic parts and LED lights but its shipper is not involved in such business. This aroused our officers’ suspicions,” Superintendent Cecilia Yeung Kai-fei, deputy head of the Customs’ revenue and general investigation bureau, said.
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Heavy smoker’ is caught smuggling 33,000 cigarettes
A “heavy smoker” caught smuggling 33,000 cigarettes into Scotland has been ordered to pay more than £9,000 in duties.
Iwona Monica Kowal was caught with contraband cigarettes hidden in her baggage on three separate occasions at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports in 2013.
The 44-year-old, from Dundee, admitted trying to avoid paying excise duty.
A civil order was made for recovery of the £9,240, and a sheriff sentenced Kowal to 200 hours of unpaid work.
The English student was first caught with 15,800 contraband cigarettes at Glasgow Airport on 8 April, 2013, as she flew back from Poland.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-32354001
Lear MoreTobacco smuggling gang arrested
British law enforcement officers were also involved in the arrests. In total, officers seized two million cigarettes without tax stamps, more than half a ton of tobacco and two tobacco processing machines. Officers from the Police Central Bureau of Investigation have been gathering information on the criminal group for some time.
http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/203892,Tobacco-smuggling-gang-arrested
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Smuggling has negative impact on revenue collection – Chanda
GOVERNMENT is concerned about the revenue losses it is incurring through rampant smuggling of goods into the country, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Gerry Chanda has said. Colonel Chanda said Government through the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) is losing colossal sums of money due to smuggling. Col. Chanda said this at his office on Wednesday when British American Tobacco (BAT) country managing director Clara Milambo paid a courtesy call on him.
“Smuggling is of great concern to the country because we are losing colossal sums of money,” Col. Chanda said.
https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=26373
Lear MoreIllicit cigarette wars intensify
A vicious battle for market share is taking place in the tobacco industry as cigarette companies fight for survival. Investigations by The Zimbabwean have revealed that the war, which pits local companies against established multinationals, involves spying activities of which James Bond would be proud. “There is very hot ‘cold war’ out there. The big companies like BAT want to maintain a monopoly of the tobacco industry but we as locals are saying that must not happen. You need to be made of steel to survive in this industry,” said Adam Molai, the executive chairman of Savanna Tobacco, in an interview last week.
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Fakes come at a high price
One of the intractable aspects of the trade in counterfeit luxury goods is that even when buyers are alerted to the fake provenance of designer handbags, many will continue with the purchase. The authorities are cracking down on the trade as reported in The National’s business section today, but a long-term solution is needed. The sale of counterfeit goods not only denies companies the rewards of their meticulously developed brands but is also exploited by organised crime and possibly terrorists, too. Clearly, buying counterfeit goods is far from the victimless crime that some people claim when justifying their purchases.
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial/fakes-come-at-a-high-price
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