The shocking truth about counterfeit drugs is laid bare

After speaking with many of the thousands of patients who choose Medical Specialists as their pharmacy, we are only too aware of the concerns, worries and hesitations that some people have when it comes to dealing with online pharmacies. We are part of a minority in that we are a fully registered, genuine pharmacy that prescribe genuine branded medication – No cheap and potentially fatal knock-offs like many online ‘pharmacies’!

And now an investigation carried out by WKYC’s Channel 3 News in America has exposed more of the murky, dangerous world of counterfeit drugs after shocking estimates show that around $75 billion worth of counterfeit drugs could have been obtained last year unknowingly.

Some may remember the widely reported 2012 case of fake cancer drug Avastin being circulated in the supply chain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had to alert medical practices in the U.S. that were suspected to have purchased and used the fakes. Avastin is an injectable medicine that is used to treat cancers of the brain, colon, kidney and lung. It is usually administered to patients in clinics, hospitals, and doctors’ offices. The fake Avastin worryingly did not contain the medicine’s active ingredient, bevacizumab, resulting in patients not receiving much needed treatment.

The new investigation comprised of the purchasing of medications online that the investigators thought looked credible enough. The websites were found by searching ‘online pharmacy’ into Google. Then, they decided to try and obtain two incredible popular medications – erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra, and the ‘bad’ cholesterol-lowering medication Lipitor.

The websites offered a variety of medications; some being brand-name prescription medications, whilst others were cheaper generic alternatives. Proudly displayed on the websites were images of the American and Canadian flags, and pictures of what appeared to be doctors and pharmacists…So far so good.
However, next is where suspicions started to arise. ‘Female Viagra’ and ‘Viagra super active’ were just two of drugs being offered on some of the websites. Viagra has not been given approval to be used by women. Also, although the UK patent on Viagra expired earlier this year, meaning certain pharmaceutical companies can produce medications containing Sildenafil (Viagra’s active ingredient), Americans will have to patiently bide their time until 2020 for a generic alternative to hit their shores.
Therefore, ‘Viagra super active’ should ring alarm bells immediately! It is either Pfizer-made Viagra, or none at all! In a move that should also set alarm bells off, two websites shockingly offered free samples of prescription-only medications with orders, such as another erectile dysfunction treatment, Cialis. Obviously there are questions within a doctor’s consultation that need to be asked to patients before any prescription item is approved and dispensed to the patient.

After ordering Viagra and Lipitor from three websites, it was a few later before anything arrived. Packages then turned up from exotic locations like China, India and Pakistan, not America or Canada. Customs forms on the packages certainly raised eyebrows. One said the package contained ‘plastic beads’, another listed ‘cards’ and a third said ‘harmless medicine’.

The drugs seemed to be genuine upon a quick glance. However, one not-so-minor problem… received was a generic Lipitor – not what the investigators had paid for. In another order, only half of the Viagra tablets had arrived that had been ordered and paid for.

Next, the issue was; were the pills actually real? Samples of the drugs were then sent off to Pfizer’s lab in Groton, Conn., for testing.

Brian Donnelly is director of investigations for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. He is a qualified pharmacist, with 22 years of FBI work under his belt. Donnelly explained some shocking things about how the tablets were most likely produced.

“The active ingredient in the chemical could be in one part of China. The person who makes the tablets could be in another part of China, and then the person who packages it could be a third person,” Donnelly says.

Donnelly explains only one thing (besides big profit) is of importance to the counterfeiter. “It’s not whether the medication works or not. It’s whether or not it looks like the product. They may use floor wax on it to give it a shine. They may use automobile paint to give it colour. They’ve used ink cartridges for colour. We’ve seen boric acid used as a dilutent to give the tablet its size and shape. One of the favourite things for making the tablets is sheet-rock.”

Donnelly’s team works together with local law enforcement to stop dozens of counterfeit operations each year they bust the dirty labs which are the polar opposite of the hygiene, sterile environments where the genuine article is produced.

“You have no idea how that drug’s been manufactured. You have no idea how it’s been stored,” Donnelly says.

In many cases, it is near impossible to distinguish a fake medication from its real counterpart, so agents use a device known as a TruScan. The device blasts a laser which analyses the drug’s chemical composition to determine authenticity.

“As you can see, it failed. So this is counterfeit. It’s counterfeit,” Donnelly says after scanning one of the Viagra pills.

However, not only was the pill fake, it gets worse. In one batch of counterfeits, the anti-inflammatory medication diclofenac was discovered to be mixed in, for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

“When you get something that’s contaminated with another drug, you have the potential for getting someone sick,” Donnelly warns.

Fake Viagra amongst 30 million Yuan haul seized in China

Shanghai police officers working together with those from three other provinces – Hubei, Zhejiang, and Hebei – have shut down the illicit operations of six criminal rings throughout China following the confiscation of 2,600kg worth of the erectile dysfunction medications such as Viagra.

According to a press release, Shanghai police initiated an investigation after a number of brand name sexual enhancement drugs were found contained in a dubious looking express delivery parcel.
Police then forwarded a sample of the contents to the local food and drug administration for analysis, who confirmed that the drugs had not adhered to any manufacturing regulations.

The parcel was tracked to an adult store on Fengzhuang Road North, which apparently had previously closed down, but not without the owners leaving a phone number plastered on the door before vacating the building. After ringing the number provided, an officer was then greeted by a male from the ironware shop next door!

The male in question, surnamed ‘Dong’, then casually displayed his collection of other phony erectile dysfunction pills for the officer. Of course, Dong was subsequently arrested and several boxes of brand name counterfeit drugs were discovered inside the ironware store.

Seven people were then arrested and on June 24 in excess of 10,000 pills were seized in a warehouse raid in the Hubei Province. Files contained in the building showed that just between the months of January to April, more than 2,600 counterfeit drugs worth over 30 million Yuan (£3.23 million) had been transported to various distributors around China. Those arrested admitted their manufacturing costs for the fake drugs were just a dozen Yuan, and sold on for several hundred Yuan.

The news comes just a month after it was reported the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seized a haul of over $41 million (£26.9 million) worth of substandard or counterfeit medication and shut down 1,677 websites selling such poorly produced and dangerous products.

The issue of counterfeit medicine looks to be one that will be around for the long-term whilst it is profitable for the criminals involved. However, organisations such as Pfizer  and Medical Specialists Pharmacy will persevere in the fight to beat the production and sale of counterfeit medicine.
Your health and well-being are not taken into account at any time by criminals these low-cost fake drugs often contain little or no of the active ingredient, or highly toxic ingredients such as arsenic, brick dust, floor wax and cartridge ink!

However, you can undergo an online consultation today with one of Medical Specialists’ GMC-registered Doctors and we supply genuine prescription and non-prescription medicines to treat a wide range of conditions such as: male impotence, male hair loss, female hair loss, acne, obesity, high cholesterol and many more. Once approved by the Doctor, they will then write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house Pharmacy team and subsequently dispensed and dispatched to you within a mere 24 hours! (Allow extra time for overseas deliveries).

Kamagra and fake impotence drug sales land two men with prison sentences

“Yes I have had Viagra, I’ve used Kamagra”. This is the alarming and common statement Medical Specialists Pharmacy regularly hears from a large number of our patients.

However, Kamagra is not Viagra. Although both contain the active ingredient sildenafil citrate, Kamagra is not licensed for prescription, sale or distribution anywhere in the UK. Any websites claiming to offer such products named Kamagra or something similar should be avoided at all costs and are usually affiliated with large-scale criminal activity.

The fact Kamagra is unlicensed means it is usually manufactured in a variety of places around the world – often India – and you simply do not fully know what you are getting. The tablets may be manufactured in unhygienic premises and the ingredients inside them are anyone’s guess!

This brings us to The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) speaking last week regarding the haul of more than £600,000 worth of counterfeit and unlicensed erectile dysfunction medication seized back in late 2011 to early 2012.

The two men involved in the illegal activities were handed suspended prison sentences and must also carry out community work, after being found guilty of importing and selling the potentially dangerous substandard medicines.

Loughborough man Ryoma Ninomiya of Forest Road, was sentenced to 8 months in prison, suspended for two years. In addition, he has been ordered to do 140 hours of unpaid community service.

Alif Shahadaht Ahmed, of Moor Lane, also in Loughborough, was punished heavier than Nimomiya. Shahadaht was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years and also must do 200 hours of community service.

The MHRA investigation into the pair’s illicit dealings was initiated back in September 2011 after the UK Border Force had intercepted a large quantity of Kamagra tablets.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) started its investigation in September 2011 following a seizure of Kamagra tablets by UK Border Force.  Nimomiya and Shahadaht were using false names to import the drugs.

Between September 2011 and January 2012, 13,000 tablets in total were seized, including additional seizures of Kamagra tablets in addition to fake versions of two licensed erectile dysfunction treatments; Cialis and Levitra. The shipments were due to make their way to numerous addresses around Leicestershire.

Nimo Ahmed, MHRA’s Acting Head of Enforcement said: “This case shows that people risk damaging their health if they buy medicines from unauthorised sources. People should speak to their GP or pharmacist who can give them good clinical advice about what medicines are best for them. The MHRA is committed to pursuing those involved in the illicit supply of medicines and taking action to ensure the public is protected. These individuals were involved in a concerted conspiracy to supply counterfeit and unlicensed medicine and showed a blatant disregard for public health.”

1,677 websites shut down for selling counterfeit medication

It has emerged that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week seized a haul of over $41 million (£26.9 million) worth of counterfeit or substandard medication in their latest battle to shut down the thousands of websites plaguing the internet that offer low-priced unlawful drugs. The crackdown is part of Operation Pangea VI; a drive to stamp out illegal medicines and which involved more than 100 countries working together, according to Interpol.

In addition to the $41 million worth of illegal medicines obtained, FDA officials have also confirmed they have arrested 58 people and have shut down 1,677 websites that were offering fake or poor quality medication, or for offering drugs without required safeguards. For instance, if a website offering prescription-only medication for male impotence such as Viagra or Cialis does not provide a doctors’ consultation, this is immediately a red flag and should raise suspicion.

In an attempt to dupe the unwilling public into parting money for the dangerous fake drugs, many of the websites the FDA shut down had sophisticated-looking interfaces and were successful in masquerading as a legitimate pharmacy. One of the websites found by the FDA – Walgreens-Store.com – was clearly trying to trick people into believing this was affiliated with the popular chain. However, their website is actually Walgreens.com.

The FDA says the seized drugs included erectile dysfunction pills called ‘Levitra Super Force’ and ‘Viagra Super Force’, in addition to schizophrenia drug Clozaril (clozapine). This medication however has been known to have serious side effects and is only usually prescribed to patients who undergo regular assessments whilst on the treatment.

Speaking to CNN about the problem of counterfeit drugs, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg commented: “It impacts consumers every day. These products can have none of the active ingredient that people need for the treatment of their disease. They can have too much or too little (of the ingredient); they can have toxic ingredients, and they can prevent patients from getting the actual medications that they badly need to treat their disease.”

During some of the raids last week, FDA and customs agents used handheld scanners with ultraviolet and infrared radiation to spot the presence of falsified packaging or questionable drug ingredients. Fake drug ingredients are still confirmed following the conduction of lab tests however. Los Angeles International Airport is one such place where the scanners are utilised due to the huge amounts of imports arriving at the airport.

Also as part of the Pangea VI Operation and happening closer to home, investigators from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last week arrested a man operating from a housing estate in Kings Langley near London.

MHRA officials exited the property with two large bags of Viagra-like erectile dysfunction drugs and his laptop for further analysis of his illegal activities.

The man’s apprehension followed the MHRA tracking his website and system for taking payments, and purchasing some drugs themselves to test. Lab analysis showed the presence of illegal ingredients inside the tablets.

This haul was just one of several across the UK last week and in total an incredible £12.2 million worth £12.2 million of illegal drugs were seized. In addition to erectile dysfunction drugs, they were fake slimming and hair loss tablets.

The MHRA’s Acting Head of Enforcement, Nimo Ahmed, said: “During one week we have seized £12.2 million worth of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines. These were being stored in unacceptable conditions and supplied through illegal internet websites without prescriptions by people who are not qualified to dispense medicines.”

He added: “When people buy medicines from an illegal website they don’t know what they’re getting, where it came from or if it’s safe to take. The dose could be too high or too low, or the ingredients could break down incorrectly in the body which makes the medicine ineffective. They could also become victims of credit card or identity fraud as well as downloading computer viruses.”

Medical Specialists Pharmacy are fully aware that there are thousands of illegal websites plaguing the internet that offer ‘discounted’ and ‘genuine’ medicines. We speak to many patients who are clearly very reluctant to obtain medicines online. With this in mind, here are some important factors to be alert of when browsing through different websites:

. No requirement of a doctors’ consultation for prescription medication.
. Long delivery times, sometimes up to several weeks. This is due to the drug being imported from a foreign country before it gets to you.
. The price of the medication is a lot cheaper than what would be expected, sometimes by as much as 70%.
. The website does not list any contact details, e.g. a telephone and fax number, email address, company address or details of its pharmacists, doctors, etc.
. A registered Pharmacy such as Medical Specialists Pharmacy will have the GPhC green cross logo together with its Pharmacy number. This number can be checked to see if it does actually exist.
. The company registration and VAT number should both be clearly stated on the website. Both of these are a legal requirement.

Pharmacist caught selling fake Viagra and Cialis

It seems a week cannot pass by without somebody being arrested or sentenced due to their illegal activity dealing with counterfeit medication. However, the guilty party this time is perhaps a surprising one.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office, a pharmacist operating in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., has been arrested and accused of illegally purchasing counterfeit Viagra and Cialis from China and subsequently dispensing the fake pills at his pharmacy to unsuspecting men.

Viagra and Cialis, together with Levitra, are three hugely popular medications to treat erectile dysfunction (also known as male impotence). Unfortunately for those who are duped into buying them, counterfeits such as the ones being offloaded by this particular pharmacist, have been previously known to contain either little or too much as the medication’s active ingredient which can prove lethal if somebody has any underlying health problems.

Moreover, Counterfeit drugs are often produced in disgusting, unsanitary warehouses too and some counterfeits have previously contained anything from blue paint (perhaps to mimic Pfizer Viagra’s blue colour), to brick dust, or even rat poison!

The pharmacist in question is 36-year-old Michael Markiewicz, owner of Chicago’s ‘Belmont Pharmacy’.  Despite the fact the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation suspended Markiewicz’ pharmacist license and withdrew Belmont Pharmacy’s license in November 2012, federal prosecutors have stated it is still operating as a nutrition and herb retailer.

Preceding the revoking of his pharmacist license, Markiewicz obtained three separate shipments of fake Viagra tablets from the most notorious country in the world for counterfeit drug activity; China, via the internet. One of these particular deliveries also included counterfeit Cialis. Investigators determined that he was offering the fake drugs in his pharmacy from December 2010 through to August 2012. Shipments contained a ‘gift pen’, according to the customs declaration, with the drugs concealed in unmarked clear plastic bags under the pen.

The federal indictment announced yesterday said that Markiewicz, of Norridge, Cook County, Illinois has been charged with eight counts of violating the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, four counts of trafficking in counterfeit drugs or goods using a counterfeit mark and three counts of smuggling in a 15-count indictment returned on Wednesday by a federal grand jury.

Although it is unclear at this time exactly how severe Markiewicz’ punishment will be, in the U.S. here are some punishments associated with counterfeit medicines: Trafficking counterfeit drugs carries maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a $2 million (about £1.3 million) fine, trafficking counterfeit goods using a counterfeit mark can carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a $2 million fine, smuggling carries a maximum of 20 years and a $250,000 (about £163,000) fine and finally violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act carries a maximum of three years and a $250,000 fine.

We can assure you of peace and mind when obtaining medicines from Medical Specialists Pharmacy. Patient health and welfare has always been at the core of our business practice. Established in 1994 and becoming the UK’s first legal online clinic in 2001, we are fully registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and also a member of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). Our team of Doctors are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) and our Pharmacists are registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB).

However, we also understand that the internet is plagued with illegal so-called ‘pharmacies’ that offer ‘discounted’ medication. They are cheap for a reason – they are not the genuine article! To help you distinguish the illegal websites from those genuine ones belonging to fully-registered pharmacies such as Medical Specialists, here are some key points to be aware of:

. Long delivery times of up to several weeks. This is due to the drug being imported from a foreign country before it arrives to you.
. The price of the medication is a lot cheaper than what you could expect, sometimes by as much as 70%.
. The website does not offer any contact details, e.g. a telephone and fax number, company address, pharmacists, doctors, etc.
. A registered Pharmacy such as Medical Specialists Pharmacy will have the GPhC green cross logo together with its Pharmacy number. This number can be checked to see if it does actually exist.
. The company registration and VAT number should both be clearly stated on the website. Both of these are a legal requirement.
. If the website does not require patients to submit a detailed medical history or answer a doctor’s consultation, this is suspicious.

$3.6 million of counterfeit drugs seized in the U.S.

Earlier this year Medical Specialists Pharmacy gave you an insight into just some of the work that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have been undertaking in their bid to stamp-out the manufacturing and distribution of counterfeit drugs, or at least keep it to an absolute minimum if possible.

Pfizer are of course most notorious for the massively popular erectile dysfunction medication Viagra (sildenafil), and indeed erectile dysfunction (ED) treatments are the most counterfeited medicines in the world. Counterfeiters are becoming more adept at developing more realistic appearing medicines. However, for the patients who are unfortunately getting duped, the low-price comes with a life-threatening risk as the drugs are often processed in unsanitary conditions and usually contain toxic ingredients that can prove deadly.

There is some positive news though which shows that these illegal counterfeiters will eventually receive their comeuppance – Partnering with governments and law enforcement agencies around the globe, Pfizer’s Global Security has successfully managed to halt an incredible 160 million counterfeit tablets from reaching unsuspecting patients around the world in the last decade.

This brings us to the fantastic news this week that US enforcement agents joined forces with Pfizer, seized a haul of counterfeit medicines from a warehouse in South Carolina, U.S., in March. The fake drugs were estimated to be worth a staggering $3.6 million (£2.3 million).

Unsurprisingly, it was fake ED drugs that were uncovered during the raid and agents discovered counterfeited versions of Viagra in addition to Eli Lilly’s Cialis (tadalafil) – another popular male impotence medication that has rivalled Viagra in recent years. The agents also found Merck & Co’s Proscar (finasteride), a drug that eases the symptoms associated with an enlarged prostate.

It is believed the counterfeit drugs had been imported from India, arriving at reshipping warehouse located in Columbia, whilst other counterfeits came from a country rife in such illegal activities – China.

The huge operation that led to the South Carolina raid involved agents with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and South Carolina’s Secretary of State Office, using their expertise with work with Pfizer and Blazer Investigations staff.
In total, $4 million-worth (£2.6 million) of counterfeit goods was seized, and not only medicines. ICE has confirmed that fake versions of products from Coach, Prada, Ray Ban, Golf Pride and TaylorMade, were also found.

South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammond said: “Counterfeit merchandise is a lose-lose situation, harming those retailers who play by the rules and cheating consumers out of the quality products they need or deserve. Fake medicine takes this harm to another level because it can literally kill you.”

Drug mailing scam lands Surrey man with 44 months in prison

Yet another counterfeiter has deservedly been imprisoned after putting lives at risk from selling fraudulent, dangerous drugs. The guilty party is a Portuguese national who has received a prison sentence of almost four years (44 months in total) following him being caught operating an illegal internet drug mailing business.

Mahomed Bacai, aged 38, of Addlestone, Surrey, conceded that he was guilty of five offences including forgery, possession of false identity documents and conspiracy to supply class C drugs, prescription-only medicines and medicines not on the General Sales List.  Bacai received his sentence on 22 February at Guildford Crown Court.

His arrest came about after the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) began its own investigation in January 2011 upon learning of seizures of medicines by the UK Border Agency in Coventry.

The governmental agency has stated that Bacai’s illicit dealings saw him hiring mailboxes using false paperwork and fictitious names. By using all this, he would acquire parcels from overseas suppliers based in India and China. He re-packed the parcels at his home before shipping them off to his international customer base.

In June 2011 MHRA officers conducted a raid of his house in Addlestone and recovered approximately £1.6m ($2.4m) worth of unlicensed medicines that comprised of ‘vast amounts of counterfeit and unlicensed erectile dysfunction medicines’ stored in what the MHRA described as ‘unsanitary conditions, including a garden shed’. In addition, officers also found powerful Class C drugs such as the opiate Tramadol, tranquiliser drug Diazepam and vials of testosterone.

More investigations into Bacai’s activities resulted in officers being able to intercept an incredible £125,000 worth of counterfeit medicines that were due to arrive at his home address and he was promptly arrested.

Nimo Ahmed, MHRA Acting Head of Enforcement said: “We are committed to pursuing those involved in the illicit supply of medicines and taking action to ensure that public health is protected. Prescription-only medicines and controlled substances such as Tramadol and Diazepam are potent substances. They can cause serious harm if not taken under the supervision of a doctor or other appropriate healthcare professional and obtained through a registered pharmacy. We urge people to only take prescription-only medicines after an appropriate consultation with their GP. They are best equipped to consider your medical history, the risk and benefits of drugs and any possible interactions with other medicines you’re taking.”

Medical Specialists Pharmacy are fully aware that there are thousands of illegal websites plaguing the internet that offer ‘discounted’ and ‘genuine’ medicines. We speak to patients on a daily basis who are clearly very reluctant to obtain medicines online. With this in mind, here are some important factors to be alert of when browsing through different websites:

. Long delivery times, sometimes up to several weeks. This is due to the drug being imported from a foreign country before it gets to you.
. For erectile dysfunction medication, a phony website could state ‘generic Viagra’ or ‘generic sildenafil citrate’. There is no such thing as generic Viagra!
. The price of the medication is a lot cheaper than usual, sometimes by as much as 70%.
. The website does not list any contact details, e.g. a telephone and fax number, company address, pharmacists, doctors, etc.
. A registered Pharmacy such as Medical Specialists Pharmacy will have the GPhC green cross logo together with its Pharmacy number. This number can be checked to see if it does actually exist.
. The company registration and VAT number should both be clearly stated on the website. Both of these are a legal requirement.

Swiss Professor creates a basic machine to detect fake drugs

Associate professor Serge Rudaz of Geneva University’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Switzerland may have helped to ease the worldwide problem of dangerous counterfeit drugs after developing an inexpensive machine that can identify diminished or fake medicines.

Keen readers of the Medical Specialists news area will already be aware of the huge risks associated with consuming a counterfeited drug and it is an issue we feel passionate about. Forbes estimated that the global sales of counterfeit drugs hit the $200 billion mark in late 2012, so clearly there is only one incentive for the criminals involved – to make money. This is regardless of the health of those who ingest the cheaply-produced drugs that can be comprised of a whole range of lethal ingredients such as paint, chalk, printer ink, brick dust and even arsenic.

Demonstrating how the problem has spread worldwide, in 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized a batch of the prescription-only cancer medicine Avastin which turned out to be fakes and had been already been dispersed across America – despite its relatively protected domestic drug supply chain. It was discovered that the phony Avastin had been shipped to the U.S. from the United Kingdom.

According to the World Health Organization, around 10% of medicines circulating in the world are fakes, with even much higher figures for certain African countries  – areas where drugs such as antibiotics, analgesics, steroids, malaria pills, or antihistamines are in such high demand and sometimes needed to prevent death. In more developed nations it is usual for the most copied drugs to be patented ones such as Viagra.

Therefore Professor Rudaz has decided to fight the huge problem of counterfeit drugs and has manufactured a relatively cheap machine for labs to utilise to pick out the fakes. The machine merely costs $10,000 (£6,595.44) – around a tenth of what other commercial equipment costs. Because of this cost factor, Rudaz and his organisation offer the technology free-of-charge and have so far donated to labs in Senegal, Mali, Cambodia, and D.R. Congo, with machines set to go to Burkina Faso, Madagascar, and Rwanda in the near future.

The machine uses a method called capillary electrophoresis – a century-old technique never previously exercised in counterfeit drug detection. Technicians simply fill a thin tube with water and tiny measure of solvent, administer a high voltage and then diluted drug moves underneath the electric field. The validity is ascertained by how fast it travels.

Rudaz asked manufacturers if they wanted to assist in developing the design but they all replied they couldn’t envisage it having a market. He says: “Because the machine uses very little solvent, it is like a low-cost printer where the ink is also low cost. You have no business.”

Rudaz acknowledges that there is a huge battle to beat the counterfeiters with ‘drug mafias’ involved in the smuggling of drugs, and that it would be almost impossible to completely eradicate it. He says: “You won’t solve counterfeits completely. We detect some drugs, but the problem remains. The problem of counterfeits is not only a problem of analytics. It is also a problem of economics and society which is too big for me.”

You do not need to worry about dangerous fakes when dealing with Medical Specialists Pharmacy. Established in 1994 and becoming the UK’s first legal online clinic in 2001, we are fully registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and also a member of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). Our team of Doctors are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) and our Pharmacists are registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB).

Counterfeiters in Nigeria and America receive heavy punishment

Over the course of this calendar year, there has been an endless number of cases to emerge that involve the production and distribution of counterfeit medicines, and these are only the ones that authorities have managed to successfully shut down. There are illegal operations still active all across the globe, with criminals always trying to conjure up new methods of tricking the public into purchasing these dangerous medicines. However, their activities cannot and will not last forever, with Medical Specialists Pharmacy and many other organisations around the world determined to bring them to justice.

Therefore it brings us with great delight to report of two such instances to occur in the last few weeks of criminals finding their comeuppance. The first happened just 11 days ago in Nigeria and surprisingly did not involve erectile dysfunction medications, which seems to be a common type of counterfeited drug. Instead it was antimalarials such as Malarone and Paludrine that had found themselves being the source of imitation.

After receiving knowledge about the existence of the fake drugs, officers from The Nigerian National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) swooped onto a market within the south-eastern city of Enugu. After the raid, authorities had amassed a haul of $15,000 worth of fake pharmaceuticals, which could have proved fatal if sold to the unsuspecting public of Nigeria. Fake drugs are often manufactured in dirty, unhygienic warehouses and sometimes can contain little or no of the genuine active ingredient, or remarkably harmful industrial compounds.

Udekpo Ekpo, acting head, south-east zone at NAFDAC, spoke of the capture of the drugs and said, “This exercise was actually necessitated by reports that there are some fake brands of antimalarial drugs in the market. Some of them are in the market without NAFDAC registration number.”

Just one week after this bust in Nigeria, 40 year old Gregory Bochter found out the hard way that dealing with counterfeit drugs does not pay. Bochter, of Volusia County, Florida, initially submitted a guilty plea back in May to the trafficking of the two popular counterfeit erectile dysfunction medications, Viagra and Cialis.

He had obtained the fake pills from China, one of the world’s biggest exporters of counterfeit drugs. Homeland Security investigators had managed to intervene and apprehend one of his shipments and discovered in excess of 1,300 prescription pills. The pills only comprised of just 30% of their active ingredient, thus meaning they would probably be ineffective to any unsuspecting men who bought them.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials claim that even after they had seized Bochter’s delivery of fake pills, he then brazenly continued to be involved in more illegal trafficking for another two months. Unfortunately for him, he has now been sentenced to eight months behind bars and is being forced to cough up a hefty $150,000 in restitution fees.  If this wasn’t bad enough for, Bochter faces three years of supervised release upon his return to society in 2020.