Bad Medicine: Fake Drugs On The NHS
11:41am UK, Wednesday February 27, 2008
Thomas Moore, Sky News health correspondent
Britain faces a growing threat from fake medicines, the Government's drug safety watchdog has warned. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says potentially dangerous counterfeit products are being unwittingly prescribed to NHS patients.
New rules to protect patients are expected
Figures obtained by Sky News show that in the last three years at least, 7,700 packs of fake prescription drugs have entered the NHS supply chain to hospitals and pharmacies.
Around 5,000 have never been recovered and may have been taken by NHS patients.
Mick Deats, head of intelligence at the MHRA, said the drugs are likely to have been manufactured abroad in unhygienic conditions with little quality control.
He said: "All counterfeits are dangerous, whether they have the correct active ingredient in them or not. If patients are taking a drug to stop blood clotting after heart surgery and it hasn't got the active ingredient in it, that represents a major risk."
This year fake batches of a prostate cancer drug, a heart treatment and a tablet for mental illness have been recovered. They contained just three quarters of the proper dose.
There is no evidence that any patients have died as a result of taking the bootleg drugs.
But the MHRA described the counterfeiting of medicines for such serious medical conditions as "sinister".
Anti-counterfeiting officials from around the world are meeting in London todayto draw up a global strategy on fake prescription drugs.
The MHRA is expected to announce a new anti-counterfeiting strategy to stop drugs entering the NHS supply chain.
Some people are pure scum, I mean life or death drugs and people are cashing in. I wondered why my antidepressants never worked
http://beta.news.sky.com/skynews/Ho...E_1293803_Bad_Medicine:_Fake_Drugs_On_The_NHS
11:41am UK, Wednesday February 27, 2008
Thomas Moore, Sky News health correspondent
Britain faces a growing threat from fake medicines, the Government's drug safety watchdog has warned. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says potentially dangerous counterfeit products are being unwittingly prescribed to NHS patients.
New rules to protect patients are expected
Figures obtained by Sky News show that in the last three years at least, 7,700 packs of fake prescription drugs have entered the NHS supply chain to hospitals and pharmacies.
Around 5,000 have never been recovered and may have been taken by NHS patients.
Mick Deats, head of intelligence at the MHRA, said the drugs are likely to have been manufactured abroad in unhygienic conditions with little quality control.
He said: "All counterfeits are dangerous, whether they have the correct active ingredient in them or not. If patients are taking a drug to stop blood clotting after heart surgery and it hasn't got the active ingredient in it, that represents a major risk."
This year fake batches of a prostate cancer drug, a heart treatment and a tablet for mental illness have been recovered. They contained just three quarters of the proper dose.
There is no evidence that any patients have died as a result of taking the bootleg drugs.
But the MHRA described the counterfeiting of medicines for such serious medical conditions as "sinister".
Anti-counterfeiting officials from around the world are meeting in London todayto draw up a global strategy on fake prescription drugs.
The MHRA is expected to announce a new anti-counterfeiting strategy to stop drugs entering the NHS supply chain.
Some people are pure scum, I mean life or death drugs and people are cashing in. I wondered why my antidepressants never worked
http://beta.news.sky.com/skynews/Ho...E_1293803_Bad_Medicine:_Fake_Drugs_On_The_NHS
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