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Viagra company takes on the fakes
Source: Agencies |
September 30, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PFIZER Inc and a pharmacy standards group are teaming up to warn consumers about the risks of counterfeit prescription medicines, which endanger the public and take money from both pharmacies and legitimate drugmakers.
Pfizer Inc, whose impotence pill Viagra is widely counterfeited, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy yesterday announced the start of an educational campaign to explain the dangers of counterfeit drugs and help people find legitimate pharmacies online.
The effort includes a website called www.AWARERx.com, a video series on a new YouTube channel called www.youtube.com/spotfakemeds, and takeovers of websites counterfeiters have previously used to sell knock-offs of Pfizer medicines.
Counterfeit drugs can be very dangerous, containing toxic substances such as rat poison or lead, or can have the wrong amount of the real drug's active ingredient.
New York-based Pfizer, the world's biggest drug maker by revenue, said counterfeit versions of Viagra have been sold in at least 101 countries.
Pfizer and the pharmacy association estimated that worldwide sales of counterfeit medicines topped $75 billion last year, up 90 percent since 2005. Meanwhile, one in six Americans bought medicines online last year, they said.
"Counterfeit medicines are often produced in unsanitary conditions by people without any medical or scientific background," Patrick Ford, Pfizer's head of global security in the Americas, said in a statement.
When Pfizer representatives bought Viagra from websites selected after an online search, all 26 sites were operating illegally and four in five were selling counterfeit Viagra, the company said.
Pfizer Inc, whose impotence pill Viagra is widely counterfeited, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy yesterday announced the start of an educational campaign to explain the dangers of counterfeit drugs and help people find legitimate pharmacies online.
The effort includes a website called www.AWARERx.com, a video series on a new YouTube channel called www.youtube.com/spotfakemeds, and takeovers of websites counterfeiters have previously used to sell knock-offs of Pfizer medicines.
Counterfeit drugs can be very dangerous, containing toxic substances such as rat poison or lead, or can have the wrong amount of the real drug's active ingredient.
New York-based Pfizer, the world's biggest drug maker by revenue, said counterfeit versions of Viagra have been sold in at least 101 countries.
Pfizer and the pharmacy association estimated that worldwide sales of counterfeit medicines topped $75 billion last year, up 90 percent since 2005. Meanwhile, one in six Americans bought medicines online last year, they said.
"Counterfeit medicines are often produced in unsanitary conditions by people without any medical or scientific background," Patrick Ford, Pfizer's head of global security in the Americas, said in a statement.
When Pfizer representatives bought Viagra from websites selected after an online search, all 26 sites were operating illegally and four in five were selling counterfeit Viagra, the company said.
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