E-drug: Parallel re-importation of drugs into USA (cont'd)
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There is a further possibility: the product you found in Mexico may
be a fake, falsely labeled, with no active ingredient, or a look-alike
dosage form of some other, cheaper drug.
It is a practice with a history going back at least to 1948 when my
late father-in-law was initially delighted to find a great bargain in
Canadian Club whisky in a liquor store in Neuvo Laredo, only to find
later that it was brown water in a look-alike bottle with a look-alike
label.
I never touch the stuff myself, but counterfeit products are a reality
in some parts of the world. Peter Barton Hutt, the doyen of
American drug regulatory lawyers and a keen student of drug
regulatory history, makes the point that one of the early, strong
proponents of Federal regulation of prescription drugs was Dr. E.R.
Squibb, founder of the former pharmaceutical firm bearing his
name, because he felt it was the only way to prevent counterfeit
products from entering the supply chain in the U.S. The National
Pharmaceutical Council, which is today something of the 'Junior
Varsity' to the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers'
Association, had its origins as a nongovernmental institution with a
principal mission of fighting counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
John Urquhart, MD, FRCP(Edin)
Professor of Pharmaco-epidemiology
Maastricht University, Maastricht NL
Chief Scientist, AARDEX Ltd/APREX Corp, Zug CH & Union City,
CA, USA
Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, UCSF, San Francisco
home office: 975 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301 USA
tel: +1-650-321-3961; fax: +1-650-324-9739
email: urquhart@ix.netcom.com
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