A growing epidemic of deadly fake medications in Asia – International Herald Tribune — This needs to be stopped immediately. Let’s see exactly how efficient the system is in China. So far this problem is growing and putting everyone in the world at risk. Read the whole article and it will scare the crap out of you.

His team, which found that more than half the malaria drugs it bought in Southeast Asia were counterfeit, discovered 12 fakes being sold as artesunate pills made by Guilin Pharma of China.

A charity working in Myanmar bought 100,000 tablets and discovered that all were worthless.

“They’re not being produced in somebody’s kitchen,” Newton said. “They’re produced on an industrial scale.”

This problem, despite FDA assurances, first cropped up in the USA in 2003 as cited here in a .

Ten different types of counterfeit drugs moved through Florida in the past two years, investigators say, including Procrit, Epogen, Serostim, Zyprexa, antifungal Diflucan and AIDS drugs Combivir and Retrovir.

Many of the fakes are so good that pharmacists have trouble telling them from the real thing. Investigators and pharmacists say the problem of counterfeit, mislabeled or mishandled drugs could spread beyond the relatively few medications affected now unless state and federal regulators tighten requirements for the nation’s drug wholesalers.

related links:
In 2002 Editorials were written about this. Nothing came of it.
18-year Old Drug Tracking Law Finally Enforced by FDA. Thousands probably died in the meantime.

WHO wants action



  1. David says:

    Maybe if we diverted a small portion of the money spent on ‘The War On Drugs’ to a ‘War On Fake Drugs’.

    Naw, never happen. There are priorities.

  2. Mike says:

    We are too heavily medicated anyway. Having observed, over the past several years, the growth in advertising for the latest wonder-drugs; I’m sometimes left with the following question: what came first, the condition or the cure?

  3. OmarTheAlien says:

    Don’t take anything until YOU, assisted by your doctor, decide that a drug is necessary. Pay no attention to all the goofy commercials that claim that just because you feel ok don’t mean you ain’t sick. Do the proper due diligence when you buy the drug, if it’s real cheap then there’s a reason, the reason being that the damned stuff could kill you, or not treat anything and the disease will kill you.

  4. Grrr says:

    #3 – “We are too heavily medicated anyway” ?? Too bad you didn’t leave that last word off.
    Check the article excerpt again: “…antifungal Diflucan and AIDS drugs Combivir and Retrovir.” Those aren’t vanity ‘scripts for hypochondriacs.

  5. ECA says:

    As #1 said..

    There is something missing here.
    Fake pills?
    HOW..?
    If they work, are they FAKE or fraudulent?
    Just cause it says Suny on it, insted of sony…And it WORKS just as good…is it fake?
    Or has the FDA and others found 1 BAD pill and grouped ALL the rest with it?? Even if the others WORK.

  6. tallwookie says:

    Interestingly enough, I read about this a few weeks ago, didnt think it was news worthy enough to submit here – now if only we could get ephedrine back on the market, my runny nose would thank you.

  7. Greg Allen says:

    Fake drugs are a HUGE problem India and south asia.

    The main problem is that real drugs are just too expensive for the average person. So, there are lots of cheaper knock-offs but you can’t trust them.

    Besides fake drugs, there is also the problem of quality control. Even if it is a legitimately manufactured drug, the strength can be way-off if it’s a no-name brand.

    The solution? Affordable drugs to make knock-offs not worth the risk.

  8. Greg Allen says:

    >>Doesn’t this prove that importing drugs are a problem?

    Unregulated imports from dubious countries, yes.

    But imports from other countries would be fine.

    Heck, maybe better, of you don’t trust the FDA to do their job.

    I spend a lot of time in Canada and would trust the drugs from there as much as from the US. I’d swallow a pill sold in England, Sweden, Japan, Australia, etc without giving it a second thought.

    But Mexico, India or China? No way. Those governments don’t bother to monitor the drug supply.

    Remember how conservatives used to say — all the time — that less government is always better? Remember that the next time you swallow a pill and hope that somebody in the government has done their job.

  9. Mr. Fusion says:

    I think ECA makes a very good point. How many of these counterfeit drugs are actually frauds.

    The US stands a much greater probability of having fraudulent drugs enter the system simply because of the number of people without insurance, inadequate insurance, and the high cost of drugs. Most other western countries have much lower drug prices and thus less need to import the frauds.

    Even though most drug breakthroughs are coming from the US, most have government funding to some degree. Add to that, most of these drugs are simply different versions of existing drugs.

    Then, drugs are made and imported from around the world. The US imports drugs from Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Spain and many other countries. They export other drugs back to these countries as well.

    Also, not all drugs are still covered by patents. They may be in the US, but other countries don’t give the same protection as the US does. Obviously the FDA and Drug Industry consider these counterfeit, yet they are made with similar quality controls.


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