Pharmaceuticals and Medicines
Based in Switzerland, Novartis International is one of the world’s leading producers of patented and generic pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, and over-the-counter medicines. The company has operated a worldwide anti-counterfeiting program for many years and has participated in hundreds of investigations of counterfeit drugs in more than 30 countries.
In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2005, James Christian, Novartis’ vice president and head of global corporate security, described a very pervasive and dangerous threat from counterfeit drugs that is growing more serious by the day because the counterfeiters have become so sophisticated that they are expert at packaging fake products in ways that make it impossible for consumers or investigators to tell if a product is authentic. “There can be no doubt that drug counterfeiters present a severe and growing threat to the health and safety of U.S. citizens,” he said in his testimony.
Christian said his company has extensive proof of drug counterfeiting activity on many continents. He described Russia as a country in which drug counterfeiting activities are essentially ignored and the country has therefore become a “paradise” in which to make fake drugs for distribution via Poland to European countries. Some of these counterfeit drugs have been found in the U.S. He described China as a country in which counterfeiting businesses are conducted by the country’s most successful, publicly traded companies. Enforcement is difficult against these companies, he said, because many have “health, regulatory and law enforcement officials as shareholders.” Countries in Central and Latin America are producing enormous quantities of counterfeit medicines; in Colombia alone, Novartis shuts down an average of one counterfeit drug lab every month. Novartis has found counterfeit drugs made with “raw materials” such as boric acid, floor wax, and lead-based paint and counterfeit injected drugs contaminated with feces and bacteria. Patients have been hospitalized and many, including many children, have died after taking these medicines.
The counterfeit drug problem is spiraling out of control and as it does so, its implications on human health are increasing. According to a February 2007 article by Donald G. McNeil, Jr. in the New York Times, fake medicines are believed to cause “tens of thousands […] to 200,000 or more” deaths per year. Drugs used to fight malaria — which causes one million deaths annually — have become one of the most popular counterfeiting opportunities, tragically preventing many people who need these medicines from getting the treatment they need. So far, the use of the fake malaria drugs has had most of its impact in Asia, where more than half of the products sampled in a recent study were found to be counterfeit, however the influx of these products into Africa is now being realized.
