Tag Archives: counterfeit pharmaceuticals

14th OPERATION PANGEA

According to the Organization for Economic Trade and Development, counterfeit trade in pharmaceuticals is a growing problem currently worth $4.4 billion. Interpol has been organizing a global operation code-named Pangea to combat the problem.

Interpol’s 14th Operation Pangea concluded in late June with impressive results:

113,OO websites were taken down in 92 participating countries;

22 people arrested

710,000 packages checked;

500,000 fake surgical masks seized in Italy

23 million fake devices of which more than half were counterfeit Covid testing kits

LAWSUIT FILED FOR DEATH OF LA PITCHER TYLER SKAGGS

The family of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs who died from a drug overdose in 2019 have recently filed two law suits against the team, the owner’s business and two former employees alleging wrongful death due to negligence and negligent hiring and supervision.

Skaggs ingested a lethal combination of opiods that included a counterfeit pill that contained fentanyl and not oxycodone and alcohol before choking on his own vomit.

“Skaggs likely believed he was taking just oxycodone and not a deadly combination with fentanyl,” the prosecutor has said.

(2) Former Angels employee charged in Tyler Skaggs’ fatal fentanyl overdose at North Texas hotel – YouTube

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COUNTERFEIT COVID-19 VACCINES

The April 22nd front page news story of the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer had identified counterfeit versions of the Covid-19 vaccine in Mexico and Poland. The counterfeit doses were seized by authorities in separate investigations in the two countries.

The global vaccination campaign, which includes the German-US BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, is unfortunately attracting fraudsters out to profit from the great demand. The fake Mexican vaccine did not harm anyone, while the Polish vaccine is believed to be an anti-wrinkle treatment. Polish authorities said no one received the counterfeit doses which were seized at a man’s apartment.

This is not the first instance of someone trying to cash in on fake Covid-19 vaccines. In January, 2021, a man in Redmond, Washington State, who claimed to be a biotech expert was arrested for introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce that he injected into as many as one-hundred people by falsely claiming it was Covid-19 vaccine. He charged patients from $400 to $1,000. Authorities have yet to determine what was injected.

The Growing Threat From Imported Pharmaceuticals

 

 

 

I just returned from delivering a talk at PirateCon 2017 in Boston on an article to be published in Men’s Health Magazine, “The World’s Most Counterfeited Prescription Drug.” The drug is Viagra, which is purchased on mass through rogue Internet pharmacies and delivered through the mail. This talk coincided with a convention held earlier in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club on the growing threat from imported pharmaceuticals (see YouTube video).