Drug Giants Accused of Ignoring Fake Medicines that Kill Millions

[babylonsister]

For those that saw the movie or read the book, "The Constant Gardener", this might ring a bell.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/13/500/

Drug Giants Accused of Ignoring Fake Medicines that Kill Millions
by Saeed Shah

The world’s major drug companies have been accused of turning a blind eye to the multibillion-dollar trade in fake medicine that has resulted in an explosion of child malaria deaths in developing countries.

Governments have not tackled the problem and pharmaceutical companies are burying the issue, afraid that any publicity given to their medicines being faked will lead to a fall in the sale of the genuine product, according to a documentary.

The problem has been particularly acute with the treatment of malaria in Africa, with anti-malaria drugs faked on an industrial scale. Professor Nick White, of Oxford University, one of the world’s leading experts on malaria, said: “We estimate that there are more than one million deaths each year - which is the equivalent of seven jumbo jets going down every day. And 90 per cent of those deaths are in children.”

Professor White said that counterfeit medicine was a major reason why malaria had become, over the past 30 years, Africa’s biggest child killer, from an illness that used to be easily treated with medicines.

Some of the fake drugs contain no medicine at all, but others have tiny traces of the real ingredients - which leads to another, potentially bigger problem: it allows the malaria parasite to build up resistance to the drug.

Nigeria’s campaigning drugs regulator, Dora Akunyili, described counterfeiting as “mass murder”. She told the documentary, which will be aired today on The Business Channel, a satellite station: “The fake drug racket and the silence associated with it have led to the resurgence of malaria… The companies kept quiet. The regulators were paid off and everybody was helpless. Drug counterfeiters operated in this country and in most developing countries for almost three decades, unchallenged.”

more...

[lonestarnot]

1. Ding ding ding ding ding.

[MADem]

2. You know, it's becoming pretty clear why Ashcroft resigned.

He certainly isn't a saint, but he's a fucking Ethics Professor compared to the crew in there now.

[sharp_stick]

3. What are the drug companies supposed to do?

I really can't see anything they can do except ask regimes in countries like Nigeria to put a stop to it. 10:1 says that the government of Nigeria is getting at least 20% of the revenue of the fake malaria drugs.

[babylonsister]

5. Well, doing nothing sure isn't working. They're ignoring the problem and

massive amounts of people, primarily children, are dying because of it.

[cyberpj]

4. And if you think it's not happening here on some level you'd better think again. nt