At a time when more tribe are looki...

At a time when more tribe are looking to save coin on prescription drugs, their frontage to counterfeit drugs is rising.

Pfizer's head of counterfeit intelligence warns that phony medicines are increasingly making it across U borders, oftentimes via Internet sales, and creating a threat to consumer safety.

John Theriault, a former FBI agent who now obliges as the vice president of global security for Pfizer Inc., said that occasionally the phony medicines on the same level make it into the legitimate sales stream.

"The Internet is neat much an unregulated flea market," he said.

The safety of consumer is at risk as global remedy counterfeiters become more sophisticated in the manufacturing and marketing of replicas of as it is blockbuster drugs as Viagra, Lipitor and Norvasc, Theriault said.

The World Health Organization estimates global sales of counterfeit medicines at $40 billion this year. The Center for Medicines in the Public Interest in recent York predicts counterfeit drug sales will reach $75 billion globally in 2010

The reason for the shoot forwarded increase in the United States: medicine costs increasing by double digits annually at a time when many Americans are becoming responsible for more of their possess costs.

It makes for a tempting market for criminals who counterfeit mix with drugss Theriault said. It's forcing Pfizer to add to its global team of investigators. publicly the world's largest drugmaker make use ofs about 15 counterfeit investigators, still Theriault is in the proces of adding a handful more in the booming counterfeit naves of China and India.

The U medicine supply remains one of the safest in the world, Theriault said. Still, consumer must be vigilant as they store for low-priced drugs, particularly in succession the Internet, he said.

Counterfeit mix with drugss are often sold by Web sites that claim to be legitimate pharmacies based in the United States or Canada, Theriault said. if it be not that the contents of the unsalable articles vary. Some contain active ingredients, if it be not that others have no active ingredient or flat contain harmful ingredients.

"Congres always asks, 'If this is similar a big problem, where are the bodies?' " Theriault said. "But if someone believes they are taking a heart medicine, unless it has no active ingredient, we say that is a threat. We're trying to raise awareness in the same manner we don't see a parcel of dead bodies."

Many times, fake remedys look just like the authentic performance But sometimes there are deep differences that consumers should be upon the lookout for, Theriault said.

For example, the shape or color of a medicine might be just slightly different in a counterfeit, for a like reason patients should pay attention to make firm the pills all look the same, he said. Packaging colors or printing might differ slightly as well. Or the case might not contain patient safety information.

The message, Theriault said, is: "Know your medicine."

Authorities bareed a Lipitor ring in 2003 when a woman who had taken the cholesterol fighter for a certain time put a counterfeit pill in her inlet and noticed it began to dissolve before she could wash it down with water. She'd purchased it from her local pharmacy.

"She called her pharmacist and she called us," Theriault said. "That's the way we find greatest in number counterfeits, through customer complaints."

for what reason TO AVOID COUNTERFEIT MEDICINES

- Purchase from a local, reputable pharmacist.

- Make certain the medicine comes with the patient safety information printed in English.

- Ask for the crops in the manufacturer's original package.

- Report suspected counterfeiting to the FDA MedWatch Program at (800) 332-1088 and to the manufacturer.

- Check medicine or its packaging. If it appears different than usual, check with your pharmacist or the manufacturer to descry if they've changed the packaging.

- Avoid medicines in foreign packaging because unregulated imports have been common way for counterfeits to insert the U.S. market.

- Use online pharmacies certified through the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in consequence of its Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites program. To verify a pharmacy belongs, visit the consumer section of www.nabp.net. If you use an online pharmacy, make indisputable it has a postal address and is licensed with the state, province or political division in which it says it's located.

- Don't pervert with money [i]or[/i] gain medicines from an online pharmacy that proposes to write prescriptions or that exchanges medications without prescriptions.

Scripps Howard of recent origins Service

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