Fake parallel trade drugs hit UK, product recalls issued by the MHRA

3 June 2007

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has issued a recall for specific batches of both the schizophrenia drug Zyprexa (olanzapine), which is manufactured by US drugmaker Eli Lilly, as well as the hypertension product Plavix (clopidogrel), jointly-marketed in the UK by France's Sanofi-Aventis and the USA's Bristol-Myers Squibb. The announcement follows the discovery of counterfeit product in the legitimate supply chain with falsified French packaging in both cases.

Until the announcement, dated May 24, no proven instance of counterfeit infiltration via the European parallel trade network had been recorded by the MHRA. For the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies the timing of the revelation could hardly be less helpful. In the previous week, the European Parliament hosted a symposium on the threat of counterfeit drugs, at which branded drugmakers were at pains to point out what they consider the systematic weakness of the distribution process (Marketletter May 28).

Parallel traded drugs can pass through "20-30 pairs of hands"

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