Counterfeit Medications

WORRIED ABOUT COUNTERFEITS?

US based Center for Medicines in Public Interest has predicted that counterfeit prescription drug sales will reach $75 billion in the year 2010. This is almost double of $40 billion in 2005. The main culprit for this huge increase is the prevalence of unlicensed fly by night Internet pharmacies. WHO estimates that almost 50% of all prescription drugs sold on the internet are counterfeit. The following are the top 10 counterfeit drugs being sold on the internet:

1. Viagra
2. Lipitor
3. Plavix
4. Norvasc
5. Zyprexa
6. Nexium
7. Sustiva
8. Cialis
9. Levitra
10. Xenical

The irony is that so many products are being counterfeited due to the very high margin that is enjoyed by the pharmaceutical company. Have you ever wondered why generics are never counterfeited? There is little money to be made when a product is selling for $10 for a 90 day supply. The story changes completely when a product is selling for $500 for a 3 month supply. This is what the counfeiters target, the high volume sellers.

Majority of the counterfeit medications are made in Asia and then the counterfeiters sell it you, the customer, via either their own website or another unsuspecting mail order pharmacy. According to International Policy Network counterfeits constitute almost almost 40% to 50% of total medication supply in Nigeria and Pakistan. In China authorities have found that some products have a counterfeit prevalence of 50% to 85%. Almost 37% of WHO essential drugs in Thailand and Nigeria are substandard. China is the biggest problem with hundreds of illegal medicine factories operating over there. Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Russia are also other sources of this problem. According to a government study 9% of drugs sold in India were also substandard. However you must keep in mind that 50 companies, which are regularly monitored, control almost 70% of sales in India.

As with buying anything you as the customer need to employ common sense and some basic caveats when you are buying medicine through mail order pharmacies who are selling you India product

LOOK OUT FOR THE MRP
At BuckADayPharmacy.com you can easily find out the price at which a product sells in India. Indian FDA law requires for a pharmaceutical company to print the selling price on the packaging. LOOK OUT FOR THIS PRINTED PRICE. It is very important, as that is the first sign of the product being manufactured in India by the company.

IF IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS

If the price is much lower than this printed price, you need to think. The margins in India are not very high and so a price that is lower than 10 to 15% of this printed price is very suspect.

CHECK FOR MANUFACTURING DETAILS

Indian FDA law requires that any product manufactured for sale in India must have the name of the company marketing or selling it along with the manufacturing location address and the manufacturing license number printed on the packaging. Look for this. If these details are not present it implies that the product is not for sale in India.

MANUFACTURING & EXPIRY DATE

Indian law requires every pack to have a born on date (manufacturing date) and expiry date. Make sure this is adequate

BUY FROM KNOWN SOURCES

More than 50% of all prescription drugs being sold on the internet are counterfeit. You must know who you are buying from, the credentials of the pharmacy, the licensing information from where they are operating. This is very important. Many online pharmacies go to large extent to hide the facts about who they are. If they have nothing to hide why don't they openly say who they are? You need to be careful about this.

BUY FROM SOURCE COUNTRY

Buy Canadian product from Canada, UK product from UK and Indian product from India. Most counterfeit pharmaceuticals are being produced in south east Asia and China. These counterfeit products don't find their way back to the source country. They land up at filling centers for online pharmacies where they are mixed with regular products and sold to you as Canadian, UK or Indian origin product. I have a simple question? Why would you want to buy product meant for India from any other country? Does it make any logical sense?

GET ALL PHARMACY DETAILS

You must get information about the pharmacy that is filing your prescription. Insist on seeing the pharmacy license, the pharmacist license and the location of the pharmacy. Why would the mail order pharmacy not want to share information about the pharmacy which is supposed to fill your scrip? Just telling you that it is Pharmacy Checker or some other verification service approved is not enough. You must ask for these basic details about the filling pharmacy.

GET MAIL ORDER COMPANY DETAILS

Ensure you have address, telephone numbers and emails of concerned people at the mail order company that is arranging your prescription. The address must be clear and full and you must do a google maps check to ensure that the address does exist. Fraudulent pharmacies are not going to give you much details about their addresses.

Overall it is safe to buy medicines online through international sources. But you need to be smart and so some due diligences to ensure you don't get cheated. Be Smart and Be Safe.

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