The Counterfeit Menace

Pharmaceutical crime is on the rise and the Interpol has increased its operations against the distribution and supply of counterfeit and illicit drugs and medical devices. This kind of organized crime not only breaks a lot of patent laws, a lot of these counterfeited drugs contain wrong amount of active ingredients and/or harmful substances that can endanger the life of the patient.

Medicines are extremely sensitive and react differently based on quality control and storage. They should not be manufactured in un-moderated facilities. These medicines are also distributed to patients without prescription both offline and online and the whole scenario is scary to say the least.

The WHO estimates that in some parts of Asia and Africa, upto 30% of medicines are counterfeited. Globally upto 10% of medicines are counterfeited and in the developed countries its around 1%. Right from weight loss pills and erectile dysfunction pills to life saving medications used to treat cancer, malaria, heart diseases etc are known to be counterfeited. Not just that, even medical devices like radiotherapy devices and surgical instruments are seen to be counterfeited.

In the UK, a lot of the medicines can be legally bought from Government regulated online doctor services and clinics. So, British citizens should consider using those online centers instead of risking their health with cheap substandard and counterfeit drugs from unapproved online pharmacies. Remember, if a website is not shown as regulated by the UK Government agencies and does not display a physical address, it is in all probability retailing in counterfeits and is operating illegally.

Operations against Counterfeit drugs

The Interpol has partnered with many countries to take down the source of such crimes. Let's have a look at some of them.

Operation Pangea: This is an operation masterminded in 2008 to fight the sale and distribution of illegal medicines on the internet. Operation Pangea is coordinated once a year, usually around September-Octobe for a period of 1 week. The operation brings together customer, national police and the health regulators of the different member countries and targets the ISP, delivery service and payment providers used by the offenders.

The operation has gone from strength to strength. When it started in 2008 as the Pangea 1 operation, it had just 10 member countries and in the latest Pangea 4 operation, there are 81 member countries participating with 2 million counterfeit and illicit pills seized and over 13,000 websites taken down.

Operation Mamba: This is an operation akin to 'Operation Pangea', but targeted to the East Africa region. Apart from seizing counterfeit pharmaceuticals and medical devises, the operation also aims to educate and spread awareness of the dangers of such illicit medical products.

Operation Storm: This is an Interpol operation targeting South Asian countries and the participating countries are Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. In the last 'Storm operation' over 20 million illicit pills were seized which is an astounding number but predicted well in advance due to the prevalence of counterfeits in this area.

Operation Cobra: Operation masterminded to counter the sale of illicit pharmaceuticals in Westernersn African countries - Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, Togo and Burkina Faso.