US security firm warns: fake drugs "next 9/11"

A US security consulting firm has warned that the worldwide epidemic of counterfeit pharmaceuticals could be the "world's next 9/11," a reference to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York City and Washington DC. The Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants is part of the Americas Watchdog group.

In a statement, the group said: "the USA, Europe, Japan or Australia are going to get hit sooner or later, with shipments of counterfeit pharmaceutical intentionally or unintentionally designed to kill people." The GP-CC has issued a simple piece of advice to would-be Internet drug purchasers: "consumers should not purchase drugs, pharmaceuticals, medicine of any type on the Internet, unless they are 100% certain it is real."

The problem is that there are several reasons for patients to go on-line to find drugs, the security consultant argues. These include: the belief that on-line drugs are cheaper; unwillingness to approach a physician to obtain a prescription (especially in the case of erectile dysfunction, a significant market for counterfeiters); patients who have been refused a prescription by their physician; and uninsured or low-income patients for whom the cost of a physician's consultation is prohibitive.