World News02-Sep-2010Africa: Vatican denounces drug counterfeiters“Fake tuberculosis and malaria drugs alone are estimated to kill 700,000 people a year”, says the missionary press agency of the Vatican. “A large part of these victims are African”. Counterfeit medicines pose a high public health risk and subpotent anti-infective medicines promotes drug resistance. Hence, “the development of germs resistant to antibiotics and other treatments is a problem that affects all humanity, not just Africans. It is therefore in the best interest of all concerned that smuggling of counterfeit drugs be fought against.” Diocesan pharmacies of the National Catholic Health and Pharmaceutical Services in Ghana were among the first drug supply organisations to establish Minilabs for counterfeit medicines detection. An appropriate due diligence project for the health services of the Cameroon Baptist Church is pending, and next year, Minilabs may well become the core technology for a major drug quality monitoring study in the West African region. 30-Aug-2010 East Africa: police seize 10 tonnes of fake medicinesSupported by Interpol, WHO and the International Medical Product Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT), police, customs and medicines regulatory authorities from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar seized 10 tons of counterfeit medicines in July and August this year. This enforcement action is an extension of Operation Mamba I and Mamba II performed in the East African region throughout summer 2008 and 2009 respectively. 25-Aug-2010 Tanzania: Due to heavy counterfeiting, sale of all Metakelfin antimalarial medicines bannedMetakelfin is liable to frequent counterfeiting in East Africa since many years and a video documentary on this dangerous trade has been produced recently. Due to the latest presence of counterfeit tablets in the market, health authorities now suspended the import, distribution, sale and use of all Metakelfin antimalarial products. The ban is in the interest of public health and patient safety. The announcement of the Tanzanian Food and Drug Authorities can be accessed here. 20-Aug-2010 Cambodia: Tons of counterfeit medicines seizedEnforcement officials destroyed 19 tons of fake pharmaceuticals confiscated from city pharmacies and drug smugglers since March this year. This success can be seen as an overall outcome of Cambodia’s effort to strengthen its medicines regulatory systems and boost its drug testing capacity combining Minlab field tests with fully-fledged lab testing on central level in the recent years. 05-Jul-2010 West Africa: Minilabs highly ranked to help in combating counterfeit medicinesThe incidence of counterfeit medicines in the West African sub-region is high and varies between 15 and 50% across countries. The prevalence of spurious medicines has led to reported therapeutic failures, drug resistance and in some cases, death on a rather alarming scale. In order to address this challenge for public health, regional strategies and an action plan have been discussed among health and enforcement officials from fifteen ECOWAS countries, assistance agencies (WAHO, IMPACT, USP/PQM etc.) and other stakeholders (Interpol, industry etc.) in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, last week. One focus was on the Minilab technology which will go a long way to help in counterfeit medicines detection in this region. Being self-contained, they can verify drug quality fast and cheap even in remote settings and feed national authorities, World Health Organization WHO and Interpol with data and samples of phoney drugs for fully-fledged testing and further criminal investigations. The blue print of action comes from drug quality monitoring studies performed in the Greater Mekong sub-region and subsequent seizures of fake medicines in abundant quantities under Operation Storm. 23-Jun-2010 Internet: Counterfeit antiviral contains antibioticActing as ghost client, the crime investigation unit of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just recently obtained fake Tamiflu over the internet. Rather than containing the antiviral oseltamivir it contained the antibiotic cloxacillin which may lead to life-threatening conditions for people being allergic to penicillin. This is yet again another incident where spurious Tamiflu managed to infiltrate the legal drug supply chain and this is why the Minilab holds a non-sophisticated test for rapid oseltamivir verification in its method inventory since many years already. A consumer warning about fake antiviral medication was issued by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) during the swine flu outbreak a year ago. 26-May-2010 World Health Organization committed to combat counterfeit medicinesIn Geneva last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) submitted a review report on its activities around the issue of counterfeit medicines to the annual World Health Assembly (WHA). The report starts 25 years back and tells WHO’s story how to tackle and eradicate this major public health problem particular prominent in countries with no or weak regulatory authorities. The issue of combating counterfeit medicines is also included in WHO’s Medicines Strategy 2008-2013 and both documents are proving WHO’s continuous commitment to follow-up this threat to public health and patient safety. 06-May-2010 Cambodia: cutting tide of counterfeit medicinesSince teaming up with USP/PQM and boosting medicines testing capacity by opening a dozen medicines field test camps fitted with Minilabs between 2003 and 2005, health officials in Cambodia detected a high prevalence of counterfeit and substandard quality antimalarial medicines. Much more recently, phoney anthelminthics have been identified, too. The concurrent collection of ample evidence on dangerous trading in counterfeit medicines now enabled authorities to enforce the closer of 65% of illegal drug outlets in the country. All dealers in death shall be warned. For the missing balance to 100%, the collection of evidence is ongoing. Mainly detection and counting but also exchange of information and awareness raising paved the way for this success. 14-Apr-2010 Russia: Minilab training for TB clinicsTB clinics based in Moscow, Vladimir and Orel have recently been equipped with GPHF-Minilabs enabling doctors to verify rapidly the quality of antituberculosis medicines on site themselves and reject counterfeit drugs before administration. For this, staff from pharmacy departments and drug control authorities has been trained at the Central TB Clinic and WHO collaboration centre in Moscow last week. The pilot study on TB drug quality is implemented by the Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) programme run by the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). GPHF Project Manager Richard Jähnke assisted in training. Clearing supplies from subpotent TB medicines will reduce the risks of multi-drug resistance proliferation. 06-Apr-2010 Mekong/Southeast Asia: Meeting on securing medicines qualityHealth officials from regional countries and experts from international organisations were meeting in the capital of Lao PDR last week to take stock upon what has been achieved in confining counterfeit medicines proliferation in the greater Mekong region over the past five years. Key challenges and solutions in securing and monitoring medicines quality over the next years were discussed whereby the GPHF-Minilab was again able to attract much attention. The meeting was organised by the Promoting the Quality of Medicines programme (USP/PQM) in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Lao PDR. The other fifty participants were FDA representatives from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines or came from global donor agencies, for example, GFATM, USAID, BMGF , WHO and JICA. 19-Mar-2010 GPHF Frankfurt: Minilab method inventory extendedAs phoney drug quality proliferation advances globally with focus on developing countries, more and more drug compounds are liable to counterfeiting and will require repetitive testing during post-marketing monitoring to ensure that only quality medicines reaches the patient. The need for more affordable and fast medicines testing is met by the GPHF-Minilab field test kit for which a supplement with new test protocols for more antibacterial, antimalarial and antituberculosis medicines has been issued now extending the Minilab’s total TLC method inventory to overall 52 drug compounds including their appropriate fixed-dose combination products. The list of Minilab reference standards has been extended accordingly but the overall background list of Minilab equipment and chemicals stays unchanged. 03-Mar-2010 Kenya: Revived GPHF video documentary on counterfeit medicinesFrom the early phase of the GPHF-Minilab project work, the almost forgotten documentary “Harm or Heal” has recently been recovered. Being virtually a timeliness piece of public education on the dangerous trade in counterfeit medicines, the original footage has now been digitalised and revived. 25-Feb-2010 Tanzania/Uganda: Life report on counterfeit antimalarial medicinesThe trade in counterfeit medicines is said to be a multibillion-dollar-business a year, but while many counterfeits are lifestyle drugs there is more and more evidence that life-saving medicines are now being faked, too. The documentary “Kill or Cure” follows the counterfeit trail and exposes the global threat for health and life. 09-Feb-2010 Sub-Saharan Africa: one-third of antimalarials are substandardFirst results from the study on the Quality of Antimalarials in Sub-Saharan Africa (QAMSA) so far performed in three out of overall ten countries reveal that a high percentage of key antimalarials circulating in the markets of Senegal, Uganda and Madagascar are of substandard quality and thus may contribute to the growth of drug-resistance. The findings were released yesterday by the Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) programme implemented by the US Pharmacopeia (USP). The joint WHO study included initial screening on site using 25 GPHF-Minilabs and full-scale quality control confirmatory testing on 40% of all samples at USP laboratories in Rockville (USA). 02-Feb-2010 Southeast Asia: Millions of fake medicines seizedTwenty million of counterfeit and illegal medicines have been seized, hundred pharmacies and other drug retail outlets closed and thirty people arrested in Southeast Asia onset this year. Interpol, WHO/IMPACT and national authorities from eight countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) led the coordinated action labelled Operation Storm II. The seizure consisted, among others, of antibiotics, antimalarials, birth control medicines and anti-tetanus vaccines. 29-Jan-2010 Papua New Guinea: Minilab unmasks counterfeit antibioticsHalf the samples of amoxicillin capsules and tablets brought by Prof. Jackson Lauwo from Papua New Guinea to the Goethe University in Frankfurt for investigation were found to be counterfeits. One purported to be produced by a manufacture that no longer exists, another claimed to be manufactured by a reputable company in India, which however does not manufacture the product in question. Several products contained the wrong amount of amoxicillin, a particularly dangerous flaw in terms of treating infections and avoiding development of drug resistance. The high incidence of counterfeits in Papua New Guinea is no real surprise, since PNG does not currently have either an official authority for regulating medicines or laboratories for testing drug products. 19-Jan-2010 Interpol: Counterfeit medicines number one on priority listWith modern computer- and manufacturing techniques even sophisticated products from electrical goods to software and medicines can be counterfeited. According to Roberto Manriquez, a criminal intelligence officer in Interpol's intellectual property crime unit, counterfeit medicines are the number one priority of the world's biggest police organisation. 14-Jan-2010 GPHF Frankfurt: More than 350 Minilabs are now based in overseas operationsMore than 350 Minilabs are now based in overseas operations across 70 countries helping to protect people in developing countries against the danger of an accelerating counterfeit medicines proliferation. Recent supplies are focusing Sub-Sahara Africa. Biggest support comes from public development assistance, in particular from the Promotion of Quality Medicines (PQM) programme run by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and financed by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). 16-Dec-2009 Germany: GPHF-Minilab manuals as teaching resourceThe scholastic magazine “Praxis of Natural Science” presents the topic of counterfeit medicines and ways to detect them in its December issue. Turning teaching and learning to daily challenges, the somewhat boring subject of chemistry will be brought right up to the cutting-edge of real life. Even if the GPHF-Minilab itself may be to expensive for the average school budget, his accompanying manuals are still fit for use here considering the easy-to-understand test protocols and the ample provision of illustrations. On performing the tests, teachers and students will quickly take on the role of Sherlock Holmes and Scotland Yard. When talking about counterfeit medicines proliferation, school teachers can also educate their students not to be entirely uncritical consumers when it comes to mail orders of medicines through illegal internet pharmacies. 09-Dec-2009 Papua New Guinea: Assessing Antimalarial Drug QualityAfter preliminary screening with the GPHF-Minilab, confirmatory drug quality testing of antimalarial medicines sampled in Papua New Guinea (PNG) will now take place at the school of pharmacy of Frankfurt University. Responsible for the study is Dr. Jackson Lauwo from the medical faculty of PNG University. He just arrived in Frankfurt to perform and learn more about advanced drug analysis. The study shall help to convince PNG health authorities to boost drug quality testing capacity in the country and to establish a national drug quality control laboratory. The local WHO country office and the Global Pharma Health Fund are supporting the first assessment of drug quality ever performed in the PNG market. The final report will be obtained by mid of 2010. 02-Dec-2009 London: Wellcome Trust conference report about counterfeit medicinesGreat Britain’s biggest medical charity The Wellcome Trust has published a report on counterfeit medicines that draws on the discussions at a briefing meeting held in London recently. In face of the dangerous trade in counterfeit medicines, the report asks to boost instantly medicines testing capacity in less developed countries. Here, simple, inexpensive and reliable test methods are most urgent needed. 24-Nov-2009 Haiti: GPHF-Minilab protects children’s hospital against counterfeit medicinesCaught out by some counterfeit medicines last year, a Minilab donated by the Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF) now protects the Saint Damien children’s hospital in Port-au-Prince of Haiti against the infiltration of further substandard quality medicines. The work of the hospital’s chief pharmacist Cajuste Romel on rapid drug quality verification is now supported by a team of experts made up from the Senior Experts Service (Bonn) and the German section of Pharmacists Without Borders (Munich). The hospital provides free treatment for 20.000 people every year and is maintained by the private aid scheme Our Small Brothers and Sisters (Karlsruhe). 17-Nov-2009 Caribbean: OECS donates a GPHF-Minilab for the British Virgin IslandsIn order to enhance the cooperation in combating counterfeit medicines among member states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the member states’ own pooled Pharmaceutical Procurement Services (PPS) donates a GPHF-Minilab for the British Virgin Islands. Francis Burnett, managing director of PPS, just recently presented a cheque for US $ 5,000 to Mrs. Carolyn Stoutt-Igwe, Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Virgin Island Government. “Old faithful” OECS/PPS is one the first Minilab user and successfully runs a lab in St. Lucia since 1999. 09-Nov-2009 USAID: Multi-million-dollar programme against counterfeit medicines proliferationThe US Agency for International Development (USAID) invests 35 million dollar to fight counterfeit medicines proliferation and promote the use of quality medicines in public health supplies. The funds have been awarded to the US Pharmacopeia (USP) for the global implementation of the Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) programme. From the Drug Quality and Information (DQI) predecessor program, well above 100 sentinel sites equipped with GPHF-Minilabs already supply USP with information on the quality of medicines in South East Asia and Africa since many years. 02-Nov-2009 Gambia: GPHF trained drug authorities in using its MinilabThe Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF), a charitable organisation initiated and maintained by Merck Darmstadt (Germany), just recently trained eight staff members of The Gambia National Pharmaceutical Services (NPS) in the use of the Minilab in Kotu near Serekunda. Donated by the GPHF and based at the Central Medical Stores, two mini-laboratories will now help the Gambian health authorities to detect counterfeit medicines containing wrong, to little or no active ingredients. International Health Partners from Great Britain will support a first drug quality monitoring study on antimalarials. 13-Oct-2009 Benin: Chirac enters fight against counterfeit medicinesYesterday, in a meeting of leading African politicians in Benin’s capital of Cotonou, former French President Jacques Chirac called for actions against counterfeit medicines proliferation in Africa. Copycat medication without any drugs are filled with empty hopes only and do not cure. The full Cotonou Declaration Against Fake Medicines can be viewed at the Chirac Foundation. 12-Oct-2009 Cambodia: Fighting counterfeit medicines with TV spots and MinilabsThe US Agency for International Development (USAID) and United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) launched a series of public service announcements on counterfeit medicines in Phnom Penh last week. First broadcasted on national television in Cambodia subsequent translations into other languages will help also to spread the word throughout all countries of the Greater Mekong region. As the proliferation of counterfeit and substandard quality medicines cannot be stopped and monitored easily “we will continue to support the Minilabs in the provinces and the main lab in the national capital of Phnom Penh” said Flynn Fuller, USAID Cambodia Mission director during the premiere event in Phnom Penh’s Meta House. 10-Sep-2009 Uganda be Riddled with Counterfeit MedicinesTons of counterfeit antimalarials and antibacterials containing wrong or no active ingredients have been seized and destroyed in Uganda (East Africa) last week - just after the finish of a sustained monitoring operation mounted by Interpol together with the National Drug Authorities and IMPACT, the anti-counterfeiting taskforce led by the World Health Organization (WHO). Among the drugs seized were chloroquine, quinine, amodiaquine, sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine, cotrimoxazole und chloramphenicol – all of them life-saving medicines if not counterfeited and of substandard quality. This concerns also faith-based drug supply where cases of spurious quinine preparations have been detected with the GPHF-Minilab earlier this year. 24-Aug-2009 West African Countries Victims and Hub of Counterfeit MedicinesAn assessment of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna from July this year now puts the dangers of trade in counterfeit medicines next to the dangers of illegal trade in narcotic drugs, weapons, toxic waste, cigarettes, oil and work force and takes them as a serious threat for countries in the West Africa region and the rest of the world. Lacking laws or poor enforcement of existing legislation are making the trade in counterfeit medicines much easier here in Africa. The majority of people stay completely unprotected against this immense threat to health and life. 27-Jul-2009 Ghana: Counterfeit Antimalarial Coartem® Contains No Active WhatsoeverGlobal implementation of artemisinine-based antimalarial combination therapy, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), enhances counterfeiting activities accordingly. Last week, the technical assistance programme of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP DQI) submitted samples of counterfeit Coartem® identified as lacking any of both its active ingredients artemether and lumefantrine to the authorities of Ghana. Within its Medicines Quality Monitoring program USP DQI maintains five sentinel sites in this West African country. Since the Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF) supplied its mini-laboratories to these sites in January this year, patients nearby now have access to a quick quality check of non-effective antimalarials locally. Here, suspicious samples can be processed on neutral ground thus bypassing local conflicts of interest.
17-Jul-2009 Namibia: HIV/AIDS programme embeds GPHF-MinilabsManagement Sciences for Health (MSH) recently ordered four GPHF-Minilabs in order to secure the supply of quality antiretroviral medicines in Namibia. Starting next month already, the Minilabs will be used to monitor antiretroviral drug quality in the market and help in preventing counterfeit medicines of substandard quality entering the supply chain for HIV/AIDS programmes. 20-May-2009 Cambodia: Counterfeit Antimalarials Help Foster Drug ResistanceIn western Cambodia, counterfeit antimalarials are helping to breed a plasmodium strain that resists even the most-effective medicine. The development threatens to roll back malaria and creates a sort of biological time bomb the World Health Organization (WHO) plans to defuse with a screening and treatment programme to contain and eliminate the multi-resistant strain in the course of this year. 12-May-2009 InfluenzaEU Warning: Criminal groups may take advantage from influenza outbreak and sell counterfeit medicines via the internet. The European Medicines Evalution Authority (EMEA) and National Competent Authorities in the Member States warn that criminal groups may take advantage of the current outbreak of the A/H1N1 influenza virus to sell fake, adulterated or unauthorised antiviral medication or vaccines via the Internet. Members of the public who buy counterfeit or illicit copies of these medicines may be putting their own health, or that of their families, at risk. 17-Feb-2009 Mekong region: educational video advert on counterfeit antimalarialsThe broad distribution of counterfeit antimalarials in Mekong countries has well been identified using the GPHF-Minilab and other technologies. Later, an enforcement campaign lead by Interpol seized about 25,000 packages of fake artesunate finally traced back to clandestine operations in China (see Operation Jupiter below). An educational video advertisement produced by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Pharmacopeia Drug Quality and Information Program (USP DQI) now warns the general public in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos about the lethal outcome of counterfeit antimalarial pills. Note that Windows Media Player or similar software will be required to access the videos.
25-Nov-2008 Operation Mamba: Authorities seized hundreds of different brands of counterfeit medicines including antimalarials in Tanzania and Uganda17-Nov-2008 Operation Storm: Interpol seizes counterfeit medicines worth $6.65 million in South East Asia15-Feb-2008 Operation Jupiter: Dust and pollen particles in counterfeit drugs expose offenders in China14-Feb-2008 Toxic counterfeit cold medicine in PanamaPanamanian investigators said that 115 people were fatally poisoned by taking counterfeit cold medicine containing the toxic antifreezing agent diethylene glycol. Later in the UK, the same toxic agent emerged in tainted toothpaste from China. 03-Dec-2007 Counterfeit medicines reporting in UKThe UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reports cases of counterfeit medicines on its homepage. 03-Dec-2007 OECD warns about counterfeit medicines proliferationThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report documenting the global proliferation of counterfeit medicines. In one case, a counterfeit medicine travelled from China across the world and was subsequently distributed in no less than 42 different countries. More information on the OECD report can be found here. |
