India perched atop fake drugs list

[OhioChick]

Reghu Balakrishnan
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 21:36 IST

MUMBAI: Another first for India, but this one leaves a bitter taste. India has been listed by the European Commission (EC) as the country which supply lion’s share of counterfeit drugs in the Europe.

According to the statistics presented by EC last week on the fake goods seized in Europe during 2005, India has been listed first in the section of medicines with supplying 75% of the total fake drugs seized. Egypt takes the dubious second slot, accounting for 7% of fake drugs seized.

Surprisingly, China, which accounts for more than 60% of the number of all goods seized, stands is in third place, with only 6% of the fake drugs.

Apart from fake drugs, India has been mentioned only for fake ready-to-wear clothes with a share of 3%. In terms of number of fake drug consignments seized, India stands third with 4%, after Indonesia (15%) and Egypt (5%). Out of the 75 million articles seized in 2005, fake goods from India accounts for only 2%.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1065386

[Ian David]

1. And Bush wants us to start importing drugs from (and outsourcing patients to) India!

US to boost India as health tourism destination

NEW DELHI: India and the US on Thursday renewed for five years a joint programme against HIV/AIDS even as Washington offered to help New Delhi's efforts to promote the country as a health tourism destination.

Visiting US President George W. Bush announced a contribution of $7 million for the India-US Corporate Fund for HIV/AIDS that is managed by GIVE Foundation and ICICI Bank. The India-US joint programme on HIV/AIDS began in 2000.

Looking to the future, the two sides said health tourism from the US to India was an area with "enormous potential for collaboration".

Given India's "world-class medical care facilities at reasonable costs, the two countries could leverage Indian expertise for their economic and social benefit".

More:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1436045.cms

[Deja Q]

3. And if their health care is anything like their IT,

people will come back just like the offshored code has: In broken tatters needing far more repair to make them worthy again.

Or that's some of what I hear is happening about the offshored work, it comes back in a worse state. (other news sources claim the absolute opposite so I no longer care which is true.)

[OhioChick]

4. Damn good analysis. n/t

[Deja Q]

2. Wow. But why should anyone complain? It's only business.

:shrug:

This response is somewhat :sarcastic: but how can anyone with numbers THAT high still manage to be in operation?! :wow:

[TahitiNut]

5. I think "fake drugs" is a deliberate misnomer.

Perhaps "fraudulently branded" might be more accurate for generic drugs chemically identical to the pharmaceutical industry's state-protected products.

It seems clear that the media is carrying water for the globally-entitled pharmaceutical industry. It's one thing to fairly compensate innovators and inventors of beneficial drugs and quite another to prop up an exorbitant profiteering scheme exploiting human suffering.

[aquart]

7. So you feel confident in taking, say, one of these:

<http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7341/800>

Murder by fake drugs

Time for international action

Until recently the most infamous internationally known example of fake drug dealing was Graham Greene's fictional account of a British fake penicillin peddler who was eliminated in the sewers of postwar Vienna in The Third Man.1 Unfortunately, malevolent dealings in counterfeit drugs are very much a contemporary reality. Notorious recent real examples include neomycin eye drops and meningococcal vaccine made of tap water; paracetamol syrup made of industrial solvent; ampicillin consisting of turmeric; contraceptive pills made of wheat flour; and antimalarials, antibiotics, and snake antivenom containing no active ingredients.2

n a recent survey of pharmacies in the Philippines, 8% of drugs bought were fake (quoted by Wondemagegnehu2). A countrywide survey in Cambodia in 1999 showed that 60% of 133 drug vendors sampled sold, as the antimalarial mefloquine, tablets that contained the ineffective but much cheaper sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, obtained from stocks that should have been destroyed, or fakes that contained no drug at all. 3 4 In another recent survey, 38% of tablets sold in five countries in mainland South East Asia as the new antimalarial artesunate were fake.5 Artesunate is an extremely important antimalarial drug, and its rapid action and lack of side effects have created significant demand in endemic areas. These characteristics, along with a relatively high cost, make artesunate particularly attractive to counterfeiters, who have gone to great lengths to deceive patients, using small amounts of ineffectual bitter chloroquine, copying the blister pack design, and even providing fake holograms on the package.5 Some counterfeit drugs contain actively harmful ingredients, not just bogus placebos. For example, aspirin, thought to be an important contributor to acidosis in children with malaria10 and a cause of Reye's syndrome, has been used in the manufacture of fake chloroquine in Africa.6

-more-

[aquart]

8. Isn't the death penalty unreasonable for mere generic drugs?

<http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7412/414-b>

India to introduce death penalty for peddling fake drugs

New Delhi Ganapati Mudur

India plans to introduce the death penalty for the sale and manufacture of fake and counterfeit medicines that cause grievous harm. The move follows widespread concern that existing regulations pose little deterrence to unscrupulous drug vendors.

An expert committee last week recommended stiffer penalties for violating the drug laws and improvements in the nation’s drug regulatory infrastructure. India’s health minister Sushma Swaraj pledged that she would accelerate the process of enacting the changes.

"Profiting from spurious drugs that might harm or kill innocent people is equivalent to mass murder," said Mrs Swaraj, after receiving an interim report from the committee. Testing of drug samples by state government inspectors last year showed that 9% of samples were poor quality drugs and that fake medicines made up 0.3 % of the samples.

The committee recommended that the maximum penalty for the sale or manufacture of fake medicines that cause grievous harm or death should be changed from life imprisonment to the death penalty and that the minimum prison sentence for these offences should be increased from five years to 10 years. The committee has also called for higher fines for those convicted for trading in fake drugs.

-more-

[TahitiNut]

9. I think I was quite clear in making the distinction

... between "fake" (not chemically equivalent) and "fraudulently-branded" (chemically equivalent but with counterfeit labels). It's my impression that no such distinction is made in the statistics cited by the article.

There's no need to ascribe an opinion quite so demeaning to me. Is that what you call "civil"??

:eyes:

[Bhaisahab]

10. TahitiNut is correct. Most drug companies in India

manufacture generic drugs through reverse engineering. This keeps the cost of medicines low, which is of great help to the majority of the people in India (aka 'consumers' to Roche et al).

It must be mentioned that some Indian drug companies are also being opposed by global drugs majors in the former's attempts to supply cheaper medicines to places like Africa.


MSF WARNS ACCESS TO MEDICINES IS UNDER THREAT

New Delhi/Geneva, 26 September 2006 – A challenge against India’s patent law filed by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis will be heard in the Chennai High Court in India today. International medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns that this case may have serious implications for future access to essential drugs worldwide.

Novartis is challenging a crucial part of the Indian law that protects patients from the patenting of trivial improvements of known molecules. Novartis is also seeking to have the January 2006 decision to reject its patent application for the cancer drug Gleevec reversed and is seeking review by the Chennai High Court.

“If Novartis’ challenge against the Indian patent law is successful, a key safeguard that can protect the production of affordable medicines will be lost,” said Ellen ‘t Hoen, Policy Director at MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. “People the world over who rely on India as a source of their medicines may be affected if Novartis gets its way.”

India has been a crucial source of affordable generic medicines, and 84% of the AIDS drugs MSF uses to treat over 60,000 patients in more than 30 countries are generics from India.

continued at http://www.accessmed-msf.org/prod/publications.asp?scntid=26920061032487&contenttype=PARA&

[OhioChick]

6. Fake heart and cancer drugs seized by Customs

MORE THAN half a million packets of fake medicines, many with potentially lethal consequences, were seized last year as customs authorities stepped up their fight against counterfeit goods entering Europe.

Fraudsters favoured Viagra and condoms, but also targeted a wide range of other items, including antibiotics, medicines to treat cancer, anti-cholesterol drugs, everyday products such as paracetamol and even those claiming to cure avian flu.

One fake, masquerading as a cardiovascular drug, was found to contain a mixture of brick dust. To resemble the genuine article it had been painted with yellow paint, normally used for roads, and covered with a coat of furniture polish to provide a glossy finish.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2448948,00.html