Tuesday, October 5, 2010
High in India
NEW DELHI — India, the world’s largest manufacturer of generic drugs, has become a busy center for counterfeit and substandard medicines. Stuffed in slick packaging and often labeled with the names of such legitimate companies as GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Novartis, the fake drugs are passed off to Indian consumers and sold in developing nations around the world.
Related: Around New England: Cleaning Up in Connecticut
Is that where they ended up because I never heard back.
Just one more unsolved crime, right?
Experts say the global fake-drug industry, worth about $90 billion, causes the deaths of almost 1 million people a year and contributes to a rise in drug resistance....
And that is only the black market costs.
Imagine when you add in all the "mistaken errors" and legally-absolved killings by same said pharmaceuticals.
Indian officials say the clandestine industry has hurt the image of the country’s booming pharmaceutical business and its exports, worth $8.5 billion a year, mostly to African and Latin American countries.
To clamp down on the illegal trade, the health ministry launched a reward program this year offering $55,000 to those who provide information about fake-drug syndicates.
Last year, the ministry also strengthened its drug law to speed up court trials. Suspects found guilty of manufacturing and selling fake drugs can be sentenced to life in prison....
“It is very difficult to dismantle the entire operation,’’ said private investigator Suresh Sati. “When we bust one operation, two more spring up elsewhere. Convictions are rare.’’
It's WORSE than the ILLEGAL DRUG INDUSTRY!
PHARMACEUTICALS -- the BIGGEST DRUG DEALERS in the WORLD!
The tricks of the trade include sticking fraudulent labels on expired products, filling vials with water, stuffing small amounts of real ingredients in packages of popular licensed brands, and putting chalk power in medicine packets.
Cutting the drugs like a..... oh, never mind.
Officials here, while concerned about public safety, have been particularly alarmed about recent incidents that discredit India’s image abroad.
In June, officials at Nigeria’s Abuja airport caught a shipment of fake antibiotics, containing no active ingredients, with a “Made in India’’ label.
Nigerian investigators later said that a Chinese company shipped the drugs via Frankfurt. In a similar incident last year, a shipment of fake antimalaria drugs from China arrived in Nigeria with an Indian tag.
But many Indian companies are “apprehensive of pursuing the cases for fear of bad publicity and possible loss of confidence among consumers,’’ said Barun Mitra, director of the New Delhi-based think tank Liberty Institute.
I'm so wasted on prescription pills I can't continue.
--more--"
Better check those drug labels we.... actually, that wouldn't mean a thing.
Into the trash can with 'em!
