Fake Medication is a Global Problem
Fake medication – that is, those that fail to meet quality standards – is a global problem, threatening not just public health but important advancements in medicine as well.
A team of scientists reported in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene that in global studies of about 17,000 drug samples, up to 41 percent of specimens failed to meet quality standards. Among the collection is an article describing the discovery of falsified and substandard malaria drugs that caused an estimated 122,350 deaths in African children in 2013. Other studies identified poor quality antibiotics, which may harm our health and increase antimicrobial resistance – a problem that currently has developed nations like the United States utterly surrounded.
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/14221/20150421/fake-medication-is-a-global-problem.htm
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China’s beauty ecommerce industry is still full of fakes, even the ‘foreign imports only’ shops
If you’ve bought more than a couple beauty products online in China, chances are you’ve purchased some fakes. Even if you bought imported ones.
Fake products are a persistent problem across China’s ecommerce market but the beauty market may be particularly afflicted. According to a report from the 21st Century Business Herald (as cited in a recent National Business Daily article), an “absolute majority” of beauty products the company’s reporters tested were fakes. A separate test by a third party earlier this year found that 49 percent of the Mary Kay products it purchased on Chinese ecommerce sites were fake. Just recently, a CCTV report revealed that some beauty masks being sold on WeChat were fakes that contained dangerously massive amounts of glucocorticosteroids. In the online beauty industry, fakes are everywhere.
https://www.techinasia.com/chinas-beauty-ecommerce-industry-full-fakes-foreign-imports-shops/
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Why researchers say fake and low-quality drugs are a ‘global pandemic’
Fake and substandard drugs are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths around the globe each year, and the persistent lack of reliable medicines in poor countries threatens to roll back decades of efforts to combat malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other conditions, researchers said Monday.
“The pandemic of falsified and substandard medicines is pervasive and underestimated, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where drug and regulatory systems are weak or non-existent,” Jim Herrington, a University of North Carolina public health professor who co-edited a collection of articles on the topic published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, said in a statement.
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BASF Introduces New Anti-fake Technology to Tackle Counterfeit Crop Protection Products in China
In China the company is introducing an innovative product label that features an identification system developed by BASF and a local partner in exclusive collaboration. This technology will ensure that farmers in China can buy genuine BASF crop protection products.
“Our new technology quickly proves the authenticity of BASF products and points out with clarity products that are counterfeited. We are committed to providing farmers with effective, innovative products that allow them to work in a safe environment and produce safe food, feed and fiber,” said Tracy Wu, Director Business Management Greater China, BASF Crop Protection.
The new technology, which has been developed by experts from BASF and a local labeling company in China, incorporates a special water mark into the product label that is invisible indoors but clearly visible in sunlight. In addition, the BASF know-how Verbund has created a special BASF color pigment to provide an additional unique characteristic that makes it even easier for farmers and retailers to identify genuine BASF products.
http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/152129/
Lear MoreChina detains gangs accused of smuggling 440,000 tonnes of oil
Chinese customs have detained members of two gangs involved in smuggling in 440,000 tonnes of fuel using retooled fishing boats or vessels done up to look like boats that carry out cleaning work on oil tankers, authorities said on Monday.
Fuel smuggling has picked up since late last year after China raised consumption taxes sharply on a variety of oil products from diesel to fuel oil, widening the margins between domestic oil prices and supplies that evade the levies, traders have said.
The arrests were made earlier this month when authorities detained more than 250 suspects from two gangs who had attempted to smuggle in fuel worth approximately 2.2 billion yuan ($355 million) in seven coastal provinces, according to a statement on the Chinese Customs Administration website (www.customs.gov.cn).
http://news.yahoo.com/china-detains-gangs-accused-smuggling-440-000-tonnes-102610250.html
Lear MoreCBP Special Operation Interrupts Smuggling Network of Illicit Agriculture Goods
Cincinnati, Ohio – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agriculture Specialists (CBPAS) at the Port of Cincinnati recently conducted a special operation in a continued effort to interrupt an extensive network of purposely mislabeled and high-risk agriculture products coming from Hong Kong, China, India, and Saudi Arabia.This special operation took place over an eight-day period highlighting the increasing trend of customers using e-commerce to purchase illegal agriculture products from Asia.
“CBP Agriculture Specialists are the first line of defense to protect U.S. agriculture, forest, and livestock industries from exotic and destructive plant pests and animal diseases,” said Chief Supervisory CBP Officer Angela Dilland.
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Focus on anti-smuggling activities along coast
The newly formed Vijayawada Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate is gearing up for anti-smuggling activities along the 975 km-long coast with Customs Preventive Divisions (CPDs) at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Ongole as the bases. The CPDs will be assisted by Shore Guard Custom Preventive Units located at Srikakulam, Machilipatnam, Narsapur, Nellore and Sullurpet.
Vijayawada Commissionerate, which has jurisdiction over the entire State excluding Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram ports, sought the cooperation of State government and Director of Ports who controls all intermediate and minor ports, for carrying out the anti-smuggling work which, according to Commissioner S. Khader Rahman, is intense in Tamil Nadu but almost neglected in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
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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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