Word: fakes
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...counterfeit branded handbag or DVD, pleased to have paid so little for something that was almost as good as the real thing. Most consumers would not knowingly apply the same logic to the medicine they take-who wants imitation Viagra? But people around the world may be unwittingly buying fake pharmaceuticals all the same. A raid of a ramshackle warehouse in southern China's Guangdong province last month turned up plenty of evidence that brand-name drugs are not always what they seem. In the raid, Chinese police working with investigators for U.S. drug manufacturer Eli Lilly discovered...
...real things, right down to the blister packs and corporate logos on the packaging, they may have few-if any-active ingredients and might contain toxic substances. These days, drug companies and international health organization officials are alarmed by the health threat posed by the increasing availability of fake drugs pouring out of illegal factories, mostly in China and India. According to Dr. Harvey Bale Jr., director general of the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA), trafficking in counterfeit medicines is a $3 billion-$6 billion industry-and as the price of genuine drugs continues to climb...
...past, fake drugs received relatively little attention, partly because the worst abuses were confined to developing countries and partly because drug companies wouldn't talk about the problem for fear of undermining trust in their brands. But recent high-profile incidents are changing that attitude of reticence. In Hong Kong, for example, knockoff versions of the widely used painkiller Panadol were discovered in stores in September 2003, a worrying development in a city with modern health regulations and consumer safeguards. In countries where there is little policing of the pharmaceutical trade, the chances of walking into a drugstore and being...
...Fake drugs are a consumer rip-off. But are they dangerous, too? According to Santoso, 60% consist mainly of benign ingredients such as rice powder or talcum powder. They won't harm people, but they won't cure them either-and that can sometimes be just as deadly. In 1995, 2,500 Nigerians died during a meningitis outbreak after they were inoculated with fake vaccines believed to have come from India. In a similar event in China last month, hundreds of parents unknowingly fed their infants bogus baby formula made of starch and sugar. At least 13 of the children...
...developing countries, counterfeiters tend to target common prescription drugs, including the antibiotic amoxicillin and the painkiller acetaminophen. Many knockoffs are easy to spot because of their amateurish packaging. WHO investigators recently found a fake antimalaria drug circulating in Cambodia called Brainy, a nonexistent brand. Counterfeiters apparently planned to fool unsophisticated buyers by printing the packaging in the Thai language-Thai products are respected in Cambodia. Other fakes, however, come in packages that are nearly indistinguishable from the real products. "Even if there is a new security feature, such as a hologram, the counterfeiters can reproduce...