PhRMA testifies to US House on fake drugs

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has testified to the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in hearings about counterfeit drugs and patient safety. The PhRMA's deputy vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs, Alan Goldhammer, said: "the integrity of America's prescription drug supply system was strengthened when the Prescription Drug Marketing Act was passed by Congress 20 years ago. The passage of this legislation established the closed distribution system we have today. Most importantly, it has helped protect American patients from the very dangerous counterfeit threat that patients around the world are experiencing firsthand."

Dr Goldhammer drew attention to a recent UK criminal trial which exposed a network of drug counterfeiting across Pakistan, China and India (Marketletter September 24). He added: "America's pharmaceutical research companies and the Food and Drug Administration together play a critical role in maintaining this secure drug supply system to help ensure the safety of American patients is not compromised. While we believe the US drug distribution system is the safest in the world, further steps can be taken to help arm us in the fight against the worldwide counterfeit epidemic. Such steps include increasing regulatory requirements for prescription drug repackagers as well as wholesalers and distributors."

On the issue of law enforcement, the PhRMA's representative told lawmakers: "today, street gang dealers face more jail time than counterfeiting criminals. This is why [the] PhRMA supports increasing the maximum criminal penalty - which is currently three years imprisonment - for counterfeiting drug products to 20 years imprisonment."