Is Access to Counterfeit Drugs on the Rise in the USA?

The accessibility to counterfeit drugs has steadily increased over the past few years; unfortunately, the USA has been home to a lot of it. With illicit businesses seeing a way to make a quick buck and uninformed patients falling for cheaper, dangerous and unknown substitute drugs, the trade has raked in millions of dollars for untrustworthy organizations and people that may trade under the guise of a mail order pharmacy.

For us at RxMile, this news is shocking. Together with reputable independent pharmacies, we continually work hard to ensure accessible, correct, and safe medications get to the people that need them when they need them. After hearing about this, we decided to look a little more into it to see what else we could find.

Now the figures we quote in this piece only relate to the seizures of such drugs, illustrating that many more are likely in circulation damaging people’s health and lining the pockets of immoral people that serve no purpose operating in the trade that we work so hard to protect.

In 2019, Forbes reported that an estimated $200 billion worth of counterfeit drugs go onto the market annually. Certainly not pocket change and huge revenue for those that trade in them.

Counterfeit drugs in the USA

The data we looked at illustrated the number of seizures of medication and as we mentioned above, there will still, no doubt, be plenty more moving across borders and directly into people’s homes.

The value of counterfeit drugs is astounding, especially when you consider the 2013 Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) was put in place to help put a lid on the dangerous practices. It required that by 2018, all manufacturers had to implement barcoding or serialization on medications. By November 2019, these numbers would be used to monitor and verify the returns of drugs.

Data released by the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) showed that in 2021, there were a total of 5987 pharmaceutical crime incidents across the globe, an increase of 38% compared to the previous year.

Of these almost 6000 incidents, 2442 of them came from North America. The most by region on the planet. This is not necessarily as bad as it may first seem though.

Why a high number of recorded counterfeit drug crimes could be a good thing

Increased efforts by enforcement agencies, more frequent inspections and tighter regulations have made it easier for criminals to be found and the drugs confiscated. So, whilst North America may top the chart for the number of seizures it could actually mean that fewer fraudulent materials are making their way to patients.

For example, the number of seizures in Africa totaled just 187 yet the Forbes 2019 report referenced that the third world had perhaps the largest proportion of counterfeit drugs in circulation.

This still doesn’t mean the fight is in any way over, the day there are zero crimes reported and zero taking place is the only time a full victory can be announced.

Why is there an increased level of counterfeit drug crimes?

As we mentioned above, an increased effort by authorities to clamp down on the criminals made it much easier to catch them but we could also look at it from another perspective.

The 5987 crimes represented a continual increase, showing that not only are the criminals being caught but perhaps they are increasing in number.  Aside from a dip in 2020, the stats have shown a steady rise in recorded pharmaceutical crime incidents.  The trend between 2017-2021 shows that each year, numbers have increased, this 2021 jump has been attributed to Coronavirus restrictions easing, allowing for more practical movement as well as criminals seeking out new opportunities.

How many of these counterfeit drug crimes affected pharmacies?

When the PSI researched the data behind the crimes, they found that a staggering 60% of the counterfeit drugs were categorized as commercial seizures. Drugs that could and would have ended up in the hands of unscrupulous pharmacists, dodgy mail order traders or potentially as dark web sales.  The rest were split among non-commercial (26%) and unknown (14%)

This meant that total seizures of counterfeit drugs were up by 101% on the prior year.

For clarity, the seizure of over 1,000 doses was classed as commercial whilst anything under 1,000 was deemed non-commercial.

555 of these drug counterfeiting crimes involved customs seizures of raids carried out by authorities.

Counterfeit drugs on a global scale

The data provided by the PSI shows that just under 6000 incidents were recorded, and as we said, there are likely thousands more that went undetected, however, let’s still look on the positive that these totals show that some counterfeit drugs stopped getting into the hands of patients.

You will notice that the figures above actually exceed the total reported by PSI, this is because a region is counted if it is the origin, point of seizure, transit or destination of the counterfeit drugs.

Across these regions, 142 countries were involved in the production, movement, sales or purchase of these products and each saw an increase in the number of new incidents related to counterfeit drugs.

As we mentioned earlier, how you interpret these numbers could skew how you think the regions tackle counterfeit drugs.  For example, a region with a higher number of incidents does not necessarily have a faulty or poor system in place for catching the criminals. Instead, it can be said that they are actually identifying the issues and prosecuting more people.

That being said, the WHO (World Health Organization) says that in low and middle-income countries, roughly 10% of medical products in circulation are either substandard or falsified. In the nations making up sub-Saharan Africa, this amount is thought to be much higher. Ranging from an estimated 19-50%.

At the other end of the scale, it could be said that those areas are not affected by the issue, but we don’t think that holds much weight. In these places, there are two potential results. Either counterfeit medicines are going undetected due to lack of funding or inadequate regulations, or, the problems are much less in these areas due to much more stringent controls.

What types of drugs are being counterfeited?

In the PSI report, they have dived deep into finding what types of medication were being counterfeited, shockingly, every therapeutic category was targeted by the criminals.

In the 5987 incidents, a huge 3160 different medicines were found, a 29% increase on the prior year, and in just one of the incidents, 129 separate counterfeit medicines were found!

The categories most affected were:

• Genito-urinary with 479 incidents.
• Central nervous system with 466 incidents
• Anti-infectives with 205 incidents
• Musculoskeletal with 161 incidents
• Cytostatic with 157 incidents.

Arrests for trading, manufacturing or transporting counterfeit drugs

When any such crime like this takes place, the authorities work hard to find not just the location selling them but also the places that manufacture and package them. Within these 5987 incidents, just shy of 3000 people were arrested with 17% of those arrests being in North America. After Asia, North America contributed the largest percentage of arrests but it is still someway behind Asia where 42% of all the arrests took place.

The solution?

A solution is not always easy to find but continual investment by governments in tackling the problem is certainly one way to continue. Coincide this with a clampdown on online pharmacies and we could make significant inroads.

Another would be for an independent pharmacy to work alongside RxMile. We were created by a pharmacist for pharmacies to help make sure they operate compliantly with software which means you are always in control. Our pharmacy delivery service means that you can trust the correct medications get to the right people safely and avoid medication errors pharmacies have been known to make And with this premium service, fewer patients will turn to illicit materials attempting to flood the market. And should you already be in the logistics business, our medication courier service allows you to scale up and provide residents of your community with a trusted, reliable and safe service for their medication needs.

With no need to be taken advantage of by immoral operators, patients can feel safe in the knowledge that their independent pharmacy, together with RxMile is making a change for the better with how people access medication. Contact us today to see how we can make you part of the future with a free trial of our pharmacy delivery software.