Counterfeit clippings: global news round-up

SecuringPharma.com's round-up of pharmaceutical supply chain security news from the world's press features reports from Switzerland, Uganda, China, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Switzerland saw a 75 per cent increase in reports of illegal medicine imports in the first half of 2010 over the same period of 2009, according to a report on the newswire swissinfo.ch. A total of 992 cases were uncovered, according to the article which cites figures from the country's regulatory agency SwissMedic. Much of the increase seems to be accounted for by imports of unapproved herbal slimming products which are often laced with pharmaceutical ingredients such as sibutramine. Currently the most popular country of origin for seized illegal medicines is India, making up 45 per cent of the total, it says.

Controversy still abounds over the drawing up of Uganda's Counterfeit Drugs Bill, with critics claiming that the amended version still conflates counterfeit medicines with generic drugs and could adversely impact local production and import of medicines, despite assertions to the contrary by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ugandan National Drug Authority. The Inter Press Service News Agency reports that there are also concerns about the proposed East African Anti Counterfeit Bill 2010, which will supersede all national legislations in the five East African Community (EAC) states (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi).

Police in China have arrested six people, detained another 41 and confiscated 227 tonnes of melamine-contaminated milk powder thought to originate from the same batch that caused six deaths in 2008, according to an article in the Shanghai Daily newspaper. Melamine is added to watered-down milk to make it appear rich in protein in quality tests that measure nitrogen. Since 2008 regulators pharmaceutical industry groups have developed a set of tools to help guard against tainted milk-derived ingredients finding their way into medicinal products.

There has been an attack on officials working for Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), with a report in the Daily Sun newspaper suggesting that they were at risk of serious injury or death from a mob in Ebonyi State trying to interrupt an enforcement action. The officials had seized illegal and suspected counterfeit drugs from patent medicine dealers selling their wares on the street.

Also in Nigeria, a man arrested while allegedly smuggling counterfeit medicines into the country has been arraigned in a court in the capital Lagos, according to a story in the Nigerian Compass newspaper. Paulinus Ejike Onuorah was arrested in May at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport by NAFDAC officials. He is accused of illegally importing counterfeit versions of the antibiotics Lincocin (lincomycin) and Ampiclox (ampicillin/cloxacillin), the antimalarial artesunate and emergency contraceptive Postinor (levonorgestrel).

Finally, Zimbabwe is becoming a "dumping site" for counterfeit products, including medicines and toothpaste, according to Rosemary Mpofu, executive director of the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe. She is cited in an article which focuses mainly on the issue of substandard food published in government-produced newspaper The Herald.