In an effort to reverse the continuing rise of prescription drug prices, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are mulling the idea of allowing drug imports from Canada. Their so-called “Safe Importation Action Plan,” however, is a misnomer—the policy could expose countless Americans to potentially deadly […]
counterfeit
Inside Sources: What Politicians Get Wrong About the Economics of Drug Importation
Last month, federal officials announced the Safe Importation Action Plan to legalize the importation of foreign drug products, including from Canada. However, the biggest concern with is proposal is that drug importation will expose American patients to unsafe, adulterated and counterfeit medicines from all over the world. To learn more, you can read this op-ed […]
Counterfeits Kill: Stronger Law Enforcement Needed
When one thinks of counterfeit goods, it can conjure up images of customers being duped into buying inferior quality designer bags or other fashion knockoffs. However, when it comes to the manufacturing, distribution and sale of counterfeit medications, the outcomes can be much more serious and life threatening. Most consumers probably don’t realize that counterfeit […]
ACI in Real Clear Health: When Crime Pays
The purpose of penalties such as fines and jail time is to address and correct perpetrators’ bad behaviors, whilst signaling to others that illicit behavior will not be tolerated – “crime will not pay.” However, when it comes to the business of counterfeit prescription medications, law enforcement falls far short as an effective deterrent. To […]
ACI in Florida Today
Worldwide, counterfeit drugs kill more than one million people each year. For Floridians, unregulated and illegally imported medications have become a big threat to public safety, and this is likely one of the many contributing factors to the recent and unexpected increase in the death rate for Americans under 65 years of age. …To continue […]
ACI in Tampa Bay Times: Florida is on the Front Line of a War on Fake Medications
Worldwide, counterfeit drugs kill more than one million people each year. The conviction earlier this month of a Palm Harbor oncologist demonstrates that Florida patients are directly at risk. Unregulated, illegally imported medications have become a big threat to public safety. Over the years, cancer patients have received fake medications containing salt and starch and […]
Real Clear Health: Counterfeits Kill: Stronger Law Enforcement Needed
When one thinks of counterfeit goods, it can conjure up images of customers being duped into buying inferior quality designer bags or other fashion knockoffs. However, when it comes to the manufacturing, distribution and sale of counterfeit medications, the outcomes can be much more serious and life threatening. Most consumers probably don’t realize that counterfeit […]
ACI Experts Write on the Health and Economic Effects of Counterfeit Drugs
Today’s American Health & Drug Benefits (AH&DB) Journal, a peer-reviewed forum, published an article written by three ACI experts — Erwin A. Blackstone, Professor of Economics at Temple University; Joseph P. Fuhr, Jr., Professor of Economics at Widener University; and Steve Pociask, President of the American Consumer Institute, Center for Citizen Research. The article can […]
Fuhr and Pociask in the Huffington Post
Joseph P. Fuhr Jr., Widener University professor and senior fellow at ACI, and Steve Pociask, ACI president, wrote a piece for the Huffington Post on the dangers of Internet Drugs. The piece can be read at the Huffington Post website.
A Few Remedies for Counterfeit Drugs
High margins and light punishments attract criminals who produce and distribute fake drugs. Counterfeiters scrimp on production costs by using alternate or no active ingredients that are brewed up in unclean labs, and they “up-label” asserting a higher potency or stolen pedigree. In 2005, drug counterfeiters grossed $32B and by 2010 that had risen to […]