US counterfeit drug market growing, and costing pharma industry billions

The counterfeiting of prescription drugs is an illegal business that is growing fast. Several years ago, the US Food and Drug Administration estimated that nearly 15% of imported pharmaceuticals contained unapproved substances, according to Lawrence Hardie, a retired supervisory special agent with US Customs and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Piracy, counterfeiting and the theft of intellectual property now cost business $250.0 billion per year, according to the US Chamber of Commerce.

Mr Hardie, now a specialist with the corporate advisory firm SES Resources International, says that the market for counterfeit drugs is increasing in the USA. As a recent segment on the NBC news program Dateline showed, counterfeit medications can be hazardous to the point of being deadly. That program profiled a family in which the mother, battling cancer, took Procrit (erythropoietin) which had been purchased at a pharmacy but which turned out to be counterfeit. With no active ingredient, the pills did nothing to ease her worsening symptoms in her last days, the program noted.

"Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are products manufactured without the authorization and supervision of the trade mark holder and may contain contaminants or incorrect amounts of active ingredients," says Mr Hardie. While purchases made over the Internet or from other countries are the most likely to be counterfeit, even a local pharmacy can unwittingly be carrying the illicit items. "Packaging and distribution are sophisticated global operations," continues Mr Hardie.