Billion business with counterfeit medicines

Growing proliferation of drug counterfeits

06/10/2011

The sale of counterfeit medicines has increased massively in Germany in recent years, according to the customs. This is sometimes associated with massive threats to the health of patients, as the plagiarism often contain too small amounts of active ingredient, wrong or no active ingredients, warn the pharmaceutical manufacturers.

According to the experts, the counterfeit medicines bring massive significant health risks, as the desired composition is lacking due to the wrong composition, resistance to the drug is developed, and in the worst case fatal complications are threatening, pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer report. The purifier produced by Pfizer „Viagra“ is one of the most common counterfeit medicines worldwide. But the plagiarism is no longer limited exclusively to so-called „Lifestyle drugs“ such as sexual enhancers, slimming products or anti-hair loss products, but to an increasing extent also cancer drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs or flu products are affected, warned the Customs.

Barely recognizable drug plagiarism
According to the customs, around ten million counterfeit medicines were seized in Germany in 2010 alone. The differences between the original preparations and the plagiarism for the layman are usually not visible. When comparing the small blue Viagra tablets with the corresponding counterfeits, there are hardly any differences with the naked eye. Both preparations have on the front of the logo of the US pharmaceutical company and the back is marked with a number. Only a closer look reveals that the original preparation is slightly lighter and slightly larger than the counterfeit, said Pfizer Germany spokesman Martin Fensch, adding: „For the average consumer, the two tablets are extremely difficult to distinguish.“ According to the customs criminal investigation expert Wolfgang Schmitz, the massive increase in seized plagiarism illustrates how lucrative the field of drug counterfeiting is for criminal groups. Nowhere is „the profit margin higher than when trading counterfeit medicines“, Schmitz emphasized. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer estimates that sales of counterfeit medicines in Europe alone at 10.5 billion euros per year. Here, the profit per kilogram of counterfeit Viagra tablets is a hundred times higher than the same amount of heroin, said the spokesman for the company.

International action against counterfeit medicines
The business with the counterfeit drugs is run by highly organized gangs, comparable to the groupings, which are involved in the drug or arms trade, emphasized the customs criminal expert Schmitz. The groupings are also highly violent, so Schmitz on. According to the Customs Criminal Office, 914 cases of counterfeit drugs were detected in Germany alone in the past year, and 268 preliminary investigations for similar violations of the German Medicines Act have already been initiated this year. Since most of the gangs are internationally structured, according to Schmitz, transnational action against the sale of counterfeit medicines is required. In the past month, international authorities had achieved a significant search success and were able to secure drug plagiarism worth around 4.6 million euros. As part of the week-long operation „Pangea IV“ According to Interpol, investigators from 81 countries against the drug counterfeiters, shut down 13,500 websites and seized 2.4 million counterfeit tablets. As Schmitz explained, the procedure was preceded by months of planning, reflected in the success of the campaign. The sheer volume of plagiarism seized, is a clear sign of how the business with the counterfeit medicines is booming and how safe the traders feel before access by the investigating authorities, explained the Customs criminal investigation expert.

Dangerous substances in counterfeit medicines
Around one percent of the drugs sold in Germany are counterfeits in the opinion of the Customs Criminal Office. Abroad, the proportion is significantly higher and reaches up to 60 percent in developing countries, said the customs criminal investigation expert. According to the customs, a share of counterfeit medicines worldwide of about 10 percent can be assumed. Most of these drug plagiarisms come, according to the experts from India or China. For the patients, the counterfeit preparations represent a health threat that should not be underestimated. Because often very questionable substances are processed instead of the intended active ingredients. For example, in a plagiarism alleviated in South America by Pfizer, lead-containing road paint, boric acid and floor cleaner were detected by Pfizer, reports the spokesman for the pharmaceutical company. In another plagiarism discovered in Canada and Hungary, talcum powder or even amphetamine was used instead of the pharmaceutical agent „speed“ been discovered.

Take special care with the purchase of medicines on the Internet
Most of the counterfeit medicines are distributed over the Internet, whereby the reputable on-line portal often hardly differ from the questionable offerers. As an indication of the trustworthiness of the so-called Internet pharmacies can be scored according to the experts, the address given in the imprint. As the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations (ABDA) already stated last year, patients who order drugs via dubious Internet addresses in exotic countries run the risk of not only ruining their health, but risking their lives. As a safest source of a drug is therefore „the pharmacy around the corner“ to evaluate, said the ABDA. In any case, customers should refrain from buying medicine on the Internet, if no imprint is specified, the experts warned. (Fp)

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Picture: Andrea Damm