Chris said:They do, but it would not very likely point to the actual
black marketer. All they would know is where and when it
was manufactured and any legal distribution. After that,
the trail would end but at least they could start an
investigation and they likely do. I am sure if they catch
anyone we will hear about it. Don't hold your breath.
Those guys that steal the stuff generally know how to
avoid getting caught and they assume the containers *will*
be found.
In the US, the unregulated nature of transporting and
distributing drugs has been a huge problem. Drugs haven't
been able to be traced back to the producer. They change
hands from distributer to distributer many times in the
worst cases. Only in the last two years has the FDA realized
this and are working actively towards a solution.
Injectables are the easiest drugs to tamper with. The "grey
marketeer" can easily dilute the drug, or replace it
completely, and get the profit on all the diluted product,
from the pharmacy, with labels they made on a pc. They could
just as easily pull off half of the injectable drug, dilute
the rest, sell the full strength stuff on the black market,
and pass on the diluted stuff to another distributer. I saw
it all on TV and I confirmed it on the internet, so I know
it's all true. Seriously, though, innocent people are
getting hurt:
biopsychiatry.comfake drugs.htmlOpen ↗
"Doctors couldn't explain why the medicine they were giving
Tim Fagan wasn't working. The 16-year-old boy had been
rushed to New York University Medical Center for an
emergency liver transplant last February.
Fagan was given daily injections of a drug called Epogen to
treat severe anemia. But his red blood cell count wasn't
improving. And there was another mystery: Shortly after each
injection, the young patient was getting severe and painful
muscle cramps.
After two months of treatments, Fagan and his family
received shocking news. The version of the drug he had
received was counterfeit. The small vials contained only one-
twentieth the amount of active ingredient the label
indicated.
"This wasn't a drug someone bought on the street," but
rather from a major national pharmacy chain, said Eric
Turkewitz, a New York lawyer who is representing the Fagans
in a pending lawsuit. "The family never thought for a moment
that it was anything but real."
It wasn't. Somewhere between the drug's manufacture and its
arrival at the pharmacy, counterfeiters had taken low-dose
vials and relabeled them as high-dose versions. The weaker
drug sells for $22 a bottle. The high-strength bottle
fetches $445. An estimated 110,000 bogus bottles reached the
market without raising suspicions. Investigators say the
counterfeit scheme may have netted criminals a staggering
$48 million."
pubs.acs.org8145drugs.htmlOpen ↗
..."Tragically, some of the drugs that have been particular
targets of counterfeiters are expensive products designed
for the sickest patients. Recently, for example, counterfeit
Procrit, an antianemia drug, placed at risk patients
severely ill with cancer and AIDS, and counterfeit Epogen
caused grave medical complications for organ transplant
recipients and patients with end-stage kidney disease."
usatoday.com2003Open ↗
05-14-fakedrug-cover_x.htm
"As more high-priced prescription medications hit the
market, they are proving irresistible to counterfeiters, who
have successfully slipped fake, mislabeled and mishandled
drugs into U.S. pharmacies. Some examples: • Investigators
have seized vials of anemia treatments Procrit and Epogen
containing 20 times less active ingredient than labeled.
• AIDS patients who rely on Serostim to prevent muscle
wasting have fallen ill after injecting a fake..."
List of the most likely drugs to be counterfieted or
tampered with:
nabp.netslsdp.pdfOpen ↗
Official FDA stance and course of action (note, dated
Feb 2004, so none of this is likely to be implemented
for a while):
fda.govreport02 04.hOpen ↗
tml
Quoted message said:These athlete cases are not really a concern to the
general public in any way (except in regions where sports
betting is allowed and even then, this is pretty trivial)
so let's not expect too much more than we get these days.
Nope. Innocent people are getting hurt.
