Deadly fake medicine trade needs global treaty

Fake and substandard medicines harm and kill patients in developed and developing countries, say Canadian and international researchers calling for an international treaty to tackle the problem.
The deadly meningitis outbreak in the U.S. from contaminated steroid injections highlights the consequences of fake medicines that contain little or no active ingredients and substandard drugs that don't meet regulatory quality control standards, experts said in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal.
U.S. authorities are investigating connections between the Canadian owner of an internet pharmacy firm and the sale of counterfeit versions of bevacizumab, an injectable cancer medication that goes by the brand names Avastin and Altuzan.
"Why is it that global law on money counterfeiting a fake 10 dollar bill is tougher than global law on a fake cancer treatment that can kill you?" asked Amir Attaran, Canada Research Chair in law, population health, and global development policy at the University of Ottawa, an author of the report.
In developing countries, a heart medicine containing a toxic overdose of a malaria drug led to 125 deaths in Pakistan, the researchers said.
The World Health Organizations estimates more than one in every 10 drug products in poorer nations are fake and in richer countries, substandard drugs cause thousands of adverse reactions and some deaths.
"Currently, the biggest problem with the governance of falsified medicines is that they are legal in global trade," and his co-authors wrote.Stopping trade of fake medicationsGovernments, drug companies and non-governmental organizations want reliable access to safe and effective medications but the authors said it's difficult to act because the discussions often trespass into thorny issues like pharmaceutical pricing and intellectual property rights.
To overcome those problems, the researchers pointed to the model of global treaties like the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that track and criminalize illicit trade in tobacco products.
The researchers from the World Federation of Public Health Associations, International Pharmaceutical Federation and the International Council of Nurses endorsed a five-point global treaty:

• Define illegitimate medicines in legal terms to avoid confusion.
• Define new public health crimes in international law, such as to manufacture, traffic or sell falsified medicines.
• Mandate intergovernmental cooperation on transborder crimes.
• Create an international forum to protect the legitimate trade of medicine such as setting global standards for authenticating medicines with tracking and tracing technology.
• Offer financial and technical assistance to strengthen regulatory authority in poorer countries.

Attaran said an international treaty would oblige countries to stop safe havens for criminals trading in fake medicines. He expects Canada would sign on to the treaty.
The authors received funding from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. The World Health Organization paid consulting and travel expenses for one of the authors.

Warhippy standard2012/11/14
at 5:10 PM ETA great deal of this is coming from China. After watching a brilliant documentary on how China views the world and how they abuse the need for ever cheaper products I for one am terrified of anything quite literally not made in my own neighbourhood as it were.

All of that of course without bringing up how China is now outsourcing labour to nearby bangladesh and sri lanka to save money or how they are stealing land in Ghana for gold or nigeria for oil.

This is just the tip of the iceberg sadly.

Judas75 standard2012/11/14
at 8:49 PM ETDeadly "fake" medicine

So homeopathy is now being banned worldwide?

Oh, of course not. God forbid we should focus on an industry that has never and will never be proven to treat anything, while charging people $50 for a bottle of water and screaming about the profiteering of "big pharma" (irony much?).

I agree that the sale of counterfeit real drugs is an enormous issue, and needs to be dealt with. But in addition to selling fake versions of real drugs, there are people selling real versions of fake drugs, and people are spending billions of dollars a year on them, to the detriment of their own health and the world economy, yet it is very seldom addressed, and desperately needs to be.

Roddybuck standard2012/11/14
at 8:29 PM ETWhere we live in Africa I can't imagine how many people die from fake malaria drugs. I see them in the market but for most people they can not afford the drugs in the pharmacies. The only hope is fake or expired drugs when the pharmacutical companies want profits that are beyond peoples means of life.

I have stopped tearing my heart apart over african issues.

the kiss-mih-arse africans love things they way they are and have set-up for worse.  they bathe and cavort in hell and love it that way.


if you tell dem: " look nuh padnah! dat is fiyah yuh fryin in yuh know...not bathin' watuh! :: "  deh will tell you "HYMC!  who are you to tell we anything slave!  "


Look at how the South Africans betrayed their own revolution and now shoot ordinary South Africans down in the street like dogs, for asking for a living wage.  look at how Musaveni of Uganda and kagame of Rwanda serve the mineral multinationals in the Congo by killing over 10 millions Congolese since 1996.

that is a holocaust 1 and 2 thirds times greater than the purported Jewish world war 2 holocaust. 


and this fact is verified by all the international agencies that monitor these things. 


and who supports and finances Musaveni and Kagame? 


yes..the americans... straight into the office of mongrel Obama himself.


BY NOW THE WORLD IS AWARE OF THE SCIENCE THAT HAS PROVEN THE INEFFICACY OF VACCINATION AS A MEANS OF  PREVENTING, CONTROLLING,  ERADICATING OR CURING DISEASE.


IT IS NOW KNOWN THAT VACCINES ACTUALLY DISTURB THE  HUMAN IMMUNE SYSTEM, WEAKENS THOSE WHO RECEIVE THEM AND PREPARE THEM FOR DISEASE.


IT IS ALSO KNOWN THAT THE INGREDIENTS IN VACCINES USED TO HOLD THEM TOGETHER, CAUSES AUTISM, PRODUCES LATENT CANCERS AND OTHER DISEASE THAT BURST OUT UPON RECIPIENTS LATER IN LIFE.

THERE IS MUCH MOVEMENT AGAINST VACCINATION IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD BUT THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE MOST EXPOSED PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, THE PEOPLE MOST EXPOSED TO  GENOCIDE THE MOST HATED PEOPLE OF THE HUMAN SPECIES BY THE REST OF THE HUMAN SPECIES...

....THE PEOPLE MOST BRUTALISED, RAPED AND EXPLOITED OVER THE PAST 500 YEARS...THE PEOPLE AND THEIR GOVERNMENTS WILLINGLY ACCEPT THESE VACCINES THROUGH GLOBAL PROGRAMS AND AGENCIES, FUNDED AND RUN BY THEIR ENEMIES.. THAT GAVE THEM AIDS EBOLA, wEST NILE etc.,..  AND NOW DEFECTIVE MALARIA VACCINES THAT IS KILLING CHILDREN BY THE HUNDREDS DAILY IN AFRICA.


YES..THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO WILLINGLY OPEN UP AND EXPOSE THEMSELVES FOR MORE OF THE SAME

THAT'S RIGHT..INSTEAD OF PUTTING BANS IN PLACE THEY OPEN UP AFRICA TO MORE AND MORE VACCINES..ALLOW MACABRE INDIVIDUALS LIKE THE MOST EXECREABLE BILL GATES AND HIS MORTICIAN WIFE MELINDA INTO AFRICA WITH TTHEIR TRAIN OF  MURDEROUS PHARMACUETICALS INTENDED TO KILL OFF AFRICANS..


PHARMA BILL I CALL HIM.


THERE IS NO WAY AFRICAN LEADERSHIP DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING..WHAT HEY HAVE DONE.  THEY HAVE TO KNOW..DO KNOW BUT DO IT ANYWAY.  THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN PEOPLE.  THEY LOVE ANY SKIN SAVE THE BLACK ONE. 


AND THEY SOMEHOW BELIEVE THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD WILL HAVE A PLACE FOR THEM, WILL MAKE A PLACE FOR THEM,  ONCE MOST AFRICANS ARE KILLED OFF.


RIIITE! AND SNOW DOES NOT MELT IN HELL!

That is how africans behave all the time..from the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top. 


the africa elites sold-off the land in africa from under the feet of their own people and drove them off the it for forrin occupation.  it took the american settlers a good 200+ years to kill off the natives and pout them on reservations. 


africans have done that voluntarily, quickly and efficiently themselves.  they have driven their own selves off their land and given it to the forriner..lock stock and barrel.


allyuh have to understand this:  they have given african land to forriners, larger than the countries from which the forriners come... with all and every right to that land that exists under their law and international law.  mining rights, building rights every right. 


africans do don't even know what's in the ground yet they have given the land away.

and some future government wont be able to take the land back because of this..and even if they wanted to do it by force they have no military capable of defeating anyone.

forriners can now put whole independent nations of millions of people on african soil if they choose to, and no african nation can stop them.

SO WHAT AM I TO DO NOW..CONTINUE TO WRETCH AND TEAR MY HEART OVER A LOST CAUSE?

its the africans themselves who have done it.. and continue to do it. 


its time to say goodbye to africa and africans..most of it anyway. 

Eritrea is still going strong..and Zimbabwe can be counted yet on the positive side..as long as Tsvangerai does not take over when Mugabe passes


a stunning revelation of the true nature and mentality of africans.  I am absolutely willing, and eager, indeed impatient to be proven wrong

{  there is famine in africa right now because of this development...the people have no land on which to grow food..and the corporations ship the food they grow on african soil to europe to make ethanol}

This is atrocious in this day and age 

if this mean what I think it does it is more than atrocious..beyond words to describe.


these assholes have allowed the american military back onto the continent and work with it to develop the MEANS AND METHODS TO CONTROL THEM.


listen!  there are people..black intellectuals who sit STUNNED by all this you know..speechless!  cant utter a word.  they never expected that we would just give it all back after previous generations fought tooth and nail, gave up their lives by the millions to take africa back from the imperialist.


this is so insane that it is clear the african people have collectively gone stark raving mad, barking mad and can no longer help themselves

Not only Africa