Monday, January 23, 2006

Fake Tamiflu Starts Its Own Epidemic
The trickle of fake flu drugs I blogged about here a few weeks ago has become a river ... or at least the news of it has. A couple of days ago, the FDA released a Statement, which included these sobering observations:

it is often impossible for unsuspecting consumers to differentiate between these products and those that are not genuine

and
advertised products may be counterfeit versions of genuine products, or impure, contaminated, sub potent or super potent products.

The FDA continues to champion adoption of RFID for supply chain security - but this is of modest help to the consumer. Currently, one of the only resources to consumers is SafeMedicines.org which provides news alerts on instances of counterfeits, and advice on buying pharmaceuticals over the Internet.