EU issues warning over fake medicines on market

EUROPE is being flooded with fake medicines, the EU warned yesterday.

Counterfeiters are taking advantage of fears of avian flu threats this winter and selling dummy versions of the anti-flu drug, Tamiflu.

British and Dutch officials recently seized two consignments of fake Tamiflu capsules that contained only lactose and vitamin C and no active substance to prevent the flu.

The Dutch health authorities have now warned consumers not to buy Tamiflu through the internet as they believe the counterfeiters are working overtime to produce look-a-like products.

EU Taxation and Customs Commissioner László Kovács said more than half a million counterfeit medicines were seized last year.

“A secret wave of dangerous fakes is threatening the people in Europe. We must quickly identify, and act to deal with, new routes of fraud and constantly changing counterfeit patterns to protect our health, safety and the economy,” he said.

Fake drugs are now one of the fastest growing areas of the counterfeit business worth billions of euro a year to criminal gangs to smuggle them across national borders or supply them through the internet.

The number of seizures in Europe has increased by 1,000% in the six years to 2004 and according to the US Centres for Medicines in the Public Interest it will double worldwide in the next five years to be worth about e60 billion a year by 2010.

Up to recently counterfeit medicines found in wealthy western countries were new, expensive lifestyle medicines such as Viagra, hormones, steroids and antihistamines.

In developing countries where up to 40% of the drugs are fake, they were mostly those used to treat life-threatening conditions such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB.

But now more drugs are being made by rogue manufacturers and turning up in more developed countries, including very expensive drugs for treating cancer and antivirals like Tamiflu.

They can cost very little to produce in countries, such as China and India, that don’t outlaw it and are often produced as a cottage industry in ordinary homes and backyards using easily available ingredients, according to the WHO.

One fake cardiovascular medicine discovered recently had a mixture of brick dust mixed with the same yellow paint used in road markings to give it the distinctive colour of the genuine medicine, and finished with a coat of furniture police to give it a glossy look.

The industry is being helped by huge price differentials between identical drugs in different countries.

The EU has rolled out a new system, ConTraffic, to try to stem the tide of fakes that are dangerous to people’s health.