General Interest - Fake Medicines Pose Global Danger

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80	Administration	BATES	Crime	India	LOUISE	Patrick	SEITER	The	You
a	against	although	are	be	catch	crime	enforcement	even	greater
harm	individuals	met	of	organized	products	says	than	that	this	to	use

World Bank and other groups say about 40 percent the drugs in parts of Africa and South America either counterfeit or of poor quality. Experts say the of such medicines can lead to treatment failure and death. Experts working to stop this counterfeit drug traffic recently in Washington. Louise Shelley heads the Terrorism, Transnational and Corruption Center at George Mason University in Virginia. SHELLEY: "'Were focusing much more on narcotics trafficking rather on counterfeits that can do harm to many more than consuming of illicit drugs." She says only an international effort can deal with this kind of organized . LOUISE SHELLEY: "I think WHO, I think the law community, I think consumer organizations, civil society everybody has role in demanding greater quality control." DR. MARGARET HAMBURG: " have no assurance of the safety, efficacy or quality those products." Margaret Hamburg heads the Food and Drug . The FDA controls the safety of drugs and food in the United States. Recently, the FDA took action thousands of Internet businesses selling illegal medical products. Dr. Lukulay is with the United States Pharmacopeia, an organization sets quality controls for medicines. He says there must an international effort. DR. PATRICK LUKULAY: "In the US, percent of active ingredients come from either China or into the US, so US companies are vulnerable." ANDREAS : "In India you have about 10,000 manufacturing companies so the Indian regulators are making investments it's difficult to up." Industry expert Andreas Seiter says many countries need strengthen their rules. The World Health Organization's Michael Bates many health experts do not understand the problem. MICHAEL : "This is a complex international trade. And we need information on the scale and the scope, and the and the economic damage that is being done by issue to convince those policy makers to commit resources tackle it." I'm Christopher Cruise.

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