Counterfeit drugs will kill, expert warns
New research shows one in five Irish people have discovered that on purchase their medicine leaflets are missing, seals are broken or the medicine is contained in foreign packaging, all signs that the chemist might have unwittingly sold them counterfeit drugs.
"There is now a belated and dawning knowledge of the nature and scale of the counterfeiting threat," former British detective superintendent Graham Satchwell told a conference in Dublin last night.
"It is not simply a Third World issue and current cases indicate that this is a real threat to every person responsible for dispensing medicines," he warned.
And, he pointed out, while the research showed just 2% of Irish people were "stupid enough" to use the internet to buy their medicines, 20% were reporting errors and mistakes in the packaging of medicines purchased in chemists.
Latest European Union statistics show a 45% increase in counterfeit medicines seized at the EU's external borders since 2003.
As a first step, he said, the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) should examine a statistically significant sample of drugs to get a measure of the problem in Ireland. Then they should liaise with the Gardaí on how to tackle it.
Mr Satchwell said drug importation in Europe had led to a situation where drugs often changed hands more than 20 times before reaching their destination.
"They are frequently manufactured in one country, shipped to the country in which they were intended to be marketed, bought and sold there by wholesalers and then moved yet again to more expensive markets," he said.
It was a situation that was easily taken advantage of by counterfeiters.
Mr Satchwell was in Dublin to support a campaign by Pfizer Healthcare Ireland that is encouraging pharmacists and patients to be aware counterfeit medicines may be in the legal supply chain.
The company is urging patients to only buy their drugs from local pharmacies, to know their medicines - colour, texture, taste and shape - and to report any differences in their medicines to their pharmacists.
Mr Satchwell said the growth in counterfeit medicines would continue as there was insufficient public awareness about the problem.
"Dealing in counterfeit medicines is still a great crime to commit for those wanting to make a quick profit," he said. "We are doing nothing more about the problem than we were in 2003, which is very little."
The IMB said no cases of counterfeit medicinal products or counterfeit active substances have been identified to date.
It said it received six warnings of the possible presence of counterfeit medicines in the last three years and one related to a veterinary medical product for which the IMB received two separate warnings.
