Roche, one of the world's largest drug makers, has been in the spotlight over criminal investigations into counterfeits of its cancer drug Avastin®. The company has lost millions because of groups that faked the drug and sold it with no active ingredient, just a mix of different chemicals.
The investigation covered many parts of the world, from Cyprus and Turkey to California, in an attempt to break the global counterfeiting network.
The World Health Organization estimates that counterfeit drugs make up no more than 1% of the market in developed countries, but more than 10% in developing countries, and up to a third in some.
The investigation revealed how weak checks are at each point where a drug passes from one supplier to another. Suppliers tend to turn a blind eye to the quality of a drug even when it comes from suspicious sources. The problem is that official distributors cannot easily be shown to be involved in counterfeiting, because they deal with so many goods and suppliers.
Medicines sold in Europe must carry a unique label identifying each pack, but there is no such system in the United States, although California will require one from 2015. US lawmakers and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have called for a unique labelling system to protect medicines from counterfeiting.
According to Reuters, the drug reached Turkey through an Egyptian company that had ordered the fake from an "illiterate" Syrian businessman. Although the Egyptian company was not registered with Egypt's health ministry, it managed to sell the drug to a Swiss distributor, which passed it on to Denmark and Britain, and then to the US market.
Like
Love
Angry
Dislike
