Traveling through the world of fake drugs (Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent)
If you didn't watch it tonight you missed a good show. I am sure they will have
it on again. Meanwhile, here are a couple of links that will tell you about
the scary possibility of getting counterfeit meds when you fill your RX's.
. June 2, 2006 | 11:10 a.m. ET
Traveling through the world of fake drugs (Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent)
I have three basic rules for doing investigative reporting in countries where
governments frown on this sort of activity: get in quietly, get out quickly and
make sure the video tapes make it back to New York.
In the case of our investigation into the world of counterfeit medicine we were
fortunately able to accomplish all three. We had heard from people in federal
law enforcement and major drug companies that the production of counterfeit
medicine is exploding in places like China, Pakistan and India just to name a
few.
About a year ago, we decided to try to turn our hidden cameras on this subject
and now we're going to take you along as we see first hand how counterfeit
medicines can be smuggled into the U.S. without detection and perhaps even more
alarming, how they could end up in your neighborhood pharmacy.
We posed as a company called The Hansen Group and started trolling the Internet
looking for suppliers of counterfeit medicines. Within weeks, companies all over
the world began offering us everything from fake Viagra to knock off Tamiflu,
the drug that would be the first line of defense during a bird-flu pandemic. The
supply line took us all the way to Hong Kong, where in a modern hotel room
outfitted with hidden cameras, we met with a woman who told us she was a major
player in this illicit business. Even we were surprised when the woman, who
called herself Cherry Wong, agreed to ship us thousands of fake Viagra tablets a
week, a deal that could be worth $10 million.
Pfizer, which makes Viagra tested some of Cherry's product and found it to be,
in fact, counterfeit, although it did contain some active ingredient.
It is an eye-opening investigation and personally alarming to see how much
counterfeiting is going on. These drugs can obviously be very dangerous on many
different levels.
And while you might think that by avoiding buying medicine over the Internet you
can protect yourself, think again. As you'll see in our story, medicine doesn't
usually go straight from the factory to the pharmacy. There is a complex network
of wholesalers who buy and sell surplus drugs. In some cases, all it takes is
some phony paper work and some realistic packaging for fake medicine to slip
into the system.
The report on counterfeit drugs airs Sunday, 7 p.m. June 4, on Dateline NBC.
Click here for more info, resources on fake drugs.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13099555/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/