News Archive

• Wellcome Trust backs counterfeit drug analysis project

  30-Jul-10 - The Wellcome Trust has awarded £473,000 ($737,000) in funding to researchers in the UK and Sweden to create a low-cost instrument that can screen medicines for quality and authenticity.

• Lack of authentication 'undermines US anti-counterfeit strategy'

  30-Jul-10 - US policymakers have "missed a golden opportunity" to make authentication technologies mandatory for intellectual property protection and protection against counterfeits, according to the IAA.

• Oracle launches serialisation software for pharma

  30-Jul-10 - Oracle has launched its Pedigree and Serialisation Manager (OPSM) software application designed to help pharmaceutical manufacturers implement mass serialisation and traceability of their products.

• Bilcare unveils pharma clients for authentication tech

  29-Jul-10 - India's Bilcare has moved its nanotechnology-based authentication technology into the commercial arena in pharma, signing deals with four domestic and multinational drugmakers.

• RFID pallet firm opens innovation centre

  29-Jul-10 - US pallet rental company iGPS, which specialises in providing pallets with embedded RFID tags, has opened a new R&D facility in Arkansas which will also showcase its product portfolio.

• India looks to technology to secure generic drug exports

  23-Jul-10 - India's government is looking at applying anti-counterfeit technologies to exported drugs to restore the battered reputation of its pharmaceutical manufacturers.

• Medicine seizures by EU customs rise again in 2009

  23-Jul-10 - Customs officers in the EU detained fewer shipments suspected of infringing intellectual property rights in 2009 compared to 2008, but sadly that downturn did not extend to medicinal products.

• Pharmaceutical cargo thefts thwarted

  23-Jul-10 - Two shipments of pharmaceutical products stolen in the last few days in the USA have been recovered thanks to the use of covert tracking devices supplied by Freightwatch.

• Ph. Eur updates heparin reference substances

  23-Jul-10 - The European Pharmacopeia has developed four chemical reference substances to be used alongside new monographs for heparin calcium and heparin sodium which are due to come into force on August 1

• Danish plan to develop API audit guidelines draws criticism

  21-Jul-10 - Plans by the Danish Medicines Agency to develop a national guideline for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) supplier auditing by drugmakers have come in for criticism.

• Baidu accused of promoting counterfeit medicines

  21-Jul-10 - Chinese search engine provider Baidu has become the latest to stand accused of failing to do enough to protect the public from being exposed to illicit websites peddling illegal medicines.

• Stolen Advair inhalers resurface in USA

  21-Jul-10 - Asthma inhalers stolen from GlaxoSmithKline last year have started to show up in US pharmacies, showing goods taken out of the legitimate supply chain can resurface months later and still be a threat to patient safety.

• EFPIA uploads coding project video

  19-Jul-10 - EFPIA has released a video explaining the main features of its medicine serialisation project in Sweden and reiterating calls for a unified coding scheme applicable across Europe.

• EDQM launches track-and-trace pilot for medicines

  16-Jul-10 - EDQM has started a track-and-trace pilot for drugs that will go further than other systems set up or piloted in Europe, and is now seeking tenders from vendors.

• NIAID malaria project will tackle substandard, fake drugs

  15-Jul-10 - The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in the USA is funding 10 centres of excellence in malaria research which will tackle a range of research topics, including new ways to identify substandard and counterfeit antimalarials.

• Thieves make off with two GSK shipments

  14-Jul-10 - GlaxoSmithKline suffered two in-transit cargo thefts in Pennsylvania, USA, late last month, with a combined value estimated at about $400,000. One trailer load of products has since been recovered, thanks to an on-board GPS tracking device.

• Cargo, warehouse theft seminar scheduled for September

  13-Jul-10 - The Pharmaceutical Cargo Security Coalition is holding an educational seminar on September 28 to help drugmakers develop a strategy to prepare for and respond to in-transit cargo theft and warehouse burglaries.

• Anti-counterfeit technology market set for 'steady' growth

  12-Jul-10 - The global market for anti-counterfeiting technologies could reach $82.2bn by 2015, according to new research which indicates food and pharma are currently the most vulnerable to the actions of counterfeiters.

• Recommended reading list: counterfeit medicines

  08-Jul-10 - Our round-up of papers published in the peer review literature, including a new analysis on the use of RFID in counterfeit prevention, a case study of a man made dangerously ill by counterfeit Cialis and a host of new analytical techniques.

• Croatian study uncovers counterfeit medicines

  08-Jul-10 - A study carried out by researchers in Croatia has found that out of 26 samples of erectile dysfunction drugs seized from the illegal supply chain, 13 may have been counterfeit.

• Parliamentary plenary on falsified meds set back to October

  03-Jul-10 - The deadline for the European Parliament’s vote on the draft Directive on Falsified Medicines has been set back from July and is now scheduled for October.

• Bilcare and Applied DNA Sciences team up on authentication

  03-Jul-10 - Bilcare Technologies and Applied DNA Sciences have joined forces to market a security system based on their respective technologies that promises to provide "real-time, portable and forensic authentication."

• Abu Dhabi says coding system will secure drug supply chain

  03-Jul-10 - The authorities in Abu Dhabi are planning to roll out a barcoding system in order to track and trace pharmaceutical products through the supply chain and fight against medicines counterfeiting.

• Temporary stickers help Turkey's meet serialisation deadline

  02-Jul-10 - Turkey has moved onto the next stage of its medicine serialisation scheme, although it has had to implement the interim measure of using temporary overstickers for products without datamatrix codes in order to meet the latest deadline in the roll-out.

• Sir David Cooksey appointed Aegate advisor

  02-Jul-10 - Patient safety company Aegate has appointed business magnate and venture capitalist Sir David Cooksey as an advisor to its executive board.

• Obama strategy on counterfeits calls for industry transparency

  02-Jul-10 - The Obama Administration has unveiled an ambitious set of measures to tackle the trade in counterfeit and pirated products, including pharmaceuticals, both domestically and internationally.

• TraceLink and Catalent link up on supply chain

  29-Jun-10 - Supply chain technology specialist TraceLink has forged an alliance with Catalent Pharma Systems in a move that reinforces its bid to move further into the pharmaceutical arena.

• Start-up aims to make pharma cargo tamper-proof

  24-Jun-10 - A security system to protect cargo containers and pallets from theft and tampering is promising to improve security in the pharmaceutical sector.

• GS1 and India develop tracking-based recall system

  24-Jun-10 - Supply chain standards group GS1 is working with the Indian government to develop a web- and mobile phone-based system to help make recalls more efficient in the pharmaceutical and food sectors.

• XStream Systems offers leasing option for authentication system

  24-Jun-10 - XStream Systems has launched a new authentication services programme to help independent pharmaceutical distributors get access to its authentication system without having to purchase equipment.

• Fake Viagra found in Australia's legitimate supply chain

  21-Jun-10 - Counterfeits of Pfizer's erectile dysfunction drug Viagra have been encountered for the first time in the pharmacy/wholesale supply chain in Australia.

• Security a top priority for supply chain executives

  20-Jun-10 - Product security is among the top concerns of healthcare supply chain executives in 2010, according to a survey commissioned by UPS.

• Italian regulator has counterfeits in its sights

  19-Jun-10 - The Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) has started a project to develop analytical methods that can be used to identify counterfeit medicines, as well as to test generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals for bioequivalence.

• FDA issues warning about 'dangerous' fake Tamiflu

  18-Jun-10 - A product sold over the Internet as 'Generic Tamiflu' has been found to contain an antibiotic that poses a serious and potentially life-threatening risk to people who are allergic to penicillins, says the FDA.

• Fake medicines seized in UK operation

  15-Jun-10 - The UK authorities have seized around £150,000-worth of unlicensed and counterfeit medicines at eight locations in London and Yorkshire, making six arrests.

• Microsoft, Yahoo follow Google in fight against rogue online pharmacies

  11-Jun-10 - Microsoft and Yahoo are now insisting that companies which advertise pharmaceuticals in the USA using their sponsored search results programmes have to be accredited by the national VIPPS scheme.

• T-Ray moves closer to commercialising tablet analyser

  11-Jun-10 - Canada's T-Ray Science has completed a pre-production prototype of its Authenticare analyser device intended for checking the authenticity of tablets and other solid dosage forms.

• Shionogi suffers cargo theft in USA

  11-Jun-10 - Japanese drugmaker Shionogi was hit by cargo thieves towards the end of last month, with two cases of its OraPred (prednisolone) product stolen from a trailer parked at a truck stop in Memphis, Tennessee.

• US man convicted of stolen goods trafficking

  11-Jun-10 - A US man has pleaded guilty to trafficking stolen products in a string of cargo theft incidents in the southeastern region of the USA.

• EDQM continues clampdown on API manufacturers

  08-Jun-10 - EDQM has continued its scrutiny of API suppliers, suspending and withdrawing six additional certificates of suitability (CEPs) since the start of the year.

• GSK is 'serialisation-ready' thanks to France's CIP13 deadline

  04-Jun-10 - GlaxoSmithKline has almost completed a major exercise to prepare for the start of France's CIP13 medicine coding scheme, and as a consequence is now prepared to meet any future traceability requirements.

• Sproxil completes Nigerian text message verification pilot

  04-Jun-10 - Sproxil completed a pilot of its text message-based authentication service in Nigeria last month, with nearly 7,000 people using it to check whether a drug for diabetes was genuine.

• Korean study paints alarming picture of risks posed by fake ED drugs

  04-Jun-10 - Researchers from Korea have analysed counterfeit versions of drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction to examine the risks patients may be exposed to by taking them, with alarming results.

• Canadian regulator publishes counterfeit guidance

  03-Jun-10 - Health Canada has finalised a guidance document on counterfeiting of health products, laying out the principles of how the agency intends to identify, assess and manage health risks associated with fakes.

• HP helps mPedigree test its SMS drug verification

  03-Jun-10 - mPedigree started testing the feasibility of its text message verification system for pharmaceuticals in Ghana last month, in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard and mobile phone carrier Zain.

• Kenya's pharmacists ask for more funding to fight fakes

  02-Jun-10 - The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya has issued a plea for more government funding to improve access to medicines and prevent counterfeits finding their way into the hands of the public.

• Dubai Customs seize counterfeit medicines

  02-Jun-10 - The authorities in United Arab Emirates have seized several million counterfeit and illegal medicine doses from a warehouse in Dubai operated by a local company.

• Oystar Manesty expands scope of on-dose verification tech

  28-May-10 - Oystar Manesty is working on expanding its nanoTrust platform, used to add security and verification markers to tablets, so as to allow third-party tags to be delivered by the system.

• Survey measures substandard medicines from Indian traders

  28-May-10 - Counterfeit and substandard medicines are still harming the reputation of the Indian pharmaceutical industry and endangering the wellbeing of patients, according to a just-published report.

• Denmark report on APIs finds supplier audits 'inadequate'

  28-May-10 - A review of the supply of APIs into the Danish market finds on the whole GMP standards are being met, but that the auditing practices of finished product manufacturers need improvement.