Counterfeit Drug News and Research

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Ahura Scientific expands global customer base in China and Germany

Ahura Scientific, Inc., the leader in field-deployed analytical instruments for human health and public safety, today announced an upgrade to the language capabilities of TruScan, its handheld Raman spectrometer designed for the stringent requirements of the pharmaceutical and consumer health industries.

14 Oct 2009

African leaders, Chirac unite to fight fake drug manufacturing, distribution

Leaders from Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Congo-Republic, Niger and Senegal on Monday joined former French President Jacques Chirac in Cotonou, Benin, in a campaign against the manufacturing and sale of fake pharmaceutical products, Reuters reports (Lewis, 10/12).

14 Oct 2009

IBM study reveals the need for smart drug manufacturer supply chain systems

Reducing the risk of counterfeit drugs and contaminated medications amidst the complexity of global manufacturing are among the top concerns of the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries today, according to a new IBM (NYSE: IBM) study. More than 50 percent of executives polled say their companies fail to respond quickly enough to pandemics and other emergencies because of lapses in their supply chain.

10 Sep 2009

Space-age technology to combat counterfeit pharmaceuticals

University of Leicester researchers have combined crime research and space-age technology in ways that could lead to the quick detection of counterfeit pharmaceuticals in a black market currently worth an estimated $40billion per year.

9 Sep 2009

New technology developed to detect counterfeit drugs

8 Sep 2009

Kenya launches malaria campaign; PBS' newshour airs segment on drug-resistance in Cambodia

Kenya on Thursday launched a national malaria campaign to encourage Kenyans to sleep under insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) every night to prevent infection, the Daily Nation reports.

28 Aug 2009

Reuters examines WHO efforts to fight H1N1 in developing countries

Reuters examines the WHO's battle against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in "[d]eveloping countries, where medical care systems are weak and supplies of antivirals insufficient." In addition to "supplying countries with diagnostic kits, medicines and masks and gloves to protect health care workers and minimize the further spread of the new virus," the WHO is continuing to distribute doses of the antiviral Tamiflu, which has been "shown to be effective so far against H1N1," according to Reuters.

15 Jun 2009

Senate could vote today on tougher tobacco legislation

The Senate could vote today on tougher tobacco laws that would give the Food and Drug Adminstration power to regulate tobacco.

9 Jun 2009

IBM and Golden State Medical Supply create drug safety model to tackle counterfeiting

IBM and Golden State Medical Supply (GSMS) have announced the two companies have worked together to help drug companies comply with stringent prescription drug pedigree regulations in advance of state and federal mandates.

26 Apr 2009

Cost-cutting measures are creeping into the medicine cabinet

Cost-cutting measures are creeping into the medicine cabinet. We split pills in half or take the drugs every other day to stretch our doses. We stop filling the prescriptions for our most expensive drugs. We buy prescriptions from online pharmacies with questionable credentials.

6 Apr 2009

Melanotan I and Melanotan II linked to rapidly changing moles

Melanotan (an unlicensed medicine dubbed the "tan jab") can cause rapid changes in the appearance of moles, warn skin experts in this week's BMJ .

29 Jan 2009

Gates Foundation grant to help prevent deaths in Africa by improving antibiotic access

The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) has announced a $1.37 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to explore ways of reducing millions of preventable deaths from severe respiratory and diarrheal infections in Africa. This project was announced in conjunction with a colloquium at the annual ICAAC/IDSA meeting warning of increasing antibiotic resistance.

26 Oct 2008

Surface analysis exposes counterfeit medicines

CERAM Surface and Materials Analysis has published a white paper highlighting how surface analysis can expose counterfeit medicines. It describes how technologies such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (ToFSIMS) are being used in novel ways to not only analyse the composition of various pharmaceuticals, but also to determine differences in the manufacturing processes involved.

15 Oct 2008

Counterfeit drugs for malaria, other diseases threaten public health, WHO Director-General Chan says

The increasing availability of counterfeit drugs for malaria and other diseases poses a threat to public health, and governments must take action to supply affordable and effective treatments, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan said Monday at the 26th Southeast Asia Region Health Ministers Meeting in New Delhi, Bernama/Daily Malaysian News reports.

10 Sep 2008

Simple hardness test detects fake medicines

The fight against fake medicines could soon be aided by a small, portable device that quickly measures the hardness of a tablet, revealing whether it is counterfeit, according to research presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester.

7 Sep 2008

A counter to counterfeit drugs

The counterfeiting of medicines has been known of since around 1990 and is a growing problem-in both developing and developed countries. Counterfeit medicines are estimated as more than 10% of the global medicines market and in some developing countries it is thought to be as high as 50%. One prediction is that global counterfeit drug sales will reach $75 billion by 2010.

30 Jul 2008

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine receives new Gates funding to fight disease

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has been awarded grant funding totalling $46.4 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and $12.7 million from other partners, to help find new and effective ways of treating and preventing malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS.

10 Mar 2008

Hand hygiene initiative aims to decrease healthcare-associated infection in developing countries

An open-access commentary in the December 2007 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology examines a recently launched a global initiative by the World Health Organization (WHO) to combat healthcare-associated infection by improving hand hygiene in health care.

22 Oct 2007

Tackling counterfeit Chinese pharmaceuticals

Agencies worldwide are cracking down on counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and much of the focus has been on China, where an official was recently executed for approving fake medicines.

17 Jul 2007

FDA says beware of glycerin imported from China

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has issued a warning to drug manufacturers, suppliers and health professionals that counterfeit drug additives have been using diethyline glycol, or DEG as a substitute for glycerin in cough medicine, fever medication and injectable drugs.

7 May 2007