Safe Medicines: True Crime and Medicine Safety

In December the WHO warned about counterfeit versions of the cancer drug Imfinzi in Armenia, Lebanon and Turkey. The drugs have no active ingredient. If you’re here in the US you may be thinking, “What do sketchy drugs there have to do with me??” Well, medicine online can come from anywhere in the world.

Watch and keep with with news like this at safemedicines.org.

Our latest PSM podcast digs into the FTC's Second Interim Staff Report on Prescription Drug Middlemen and how independent pharmacists are getting squeezed by rapacious PBMs. 

with 

• Garth Reynolds, BSPharm, RPh, MBA, FAPhA, Executive Director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association.
• Shabbir Safdar, Executive Director, Partnership for Safe Medicines

In December federal prosecutors announced the arrest of Xiaofei “Sophie” Chen at a trade show held in Vegas last October. Chen is a Chinese national accused of illegally supplying U.S. customers with pill presses and counterfeit pill molds. Find out more about this case!

A California resident took in over a million dollars selling workout supplements called SARMs and prescription drugs--including Viagra and semaglutide--under the label Warrior Labz. Listen to learn more.

The American Diabetes Association has released a patient safety alert that warns about counterfeits, illegally-compounded, and other compounded GLP-1 injections made with non-FDA approved ingredients.  Learn more at safemedicines.org

Have you read the FTC's complaint about pharmacy benefit managers and insulin prices? Learn how PBM business practices hurt pharmacies and American patients.

CBP published a summary of what they and agents with the FDA found in a week looking for fake medicines at the Port of Cincinnati. Let’s take a look at what they found.

Listen to Mark Karhoff of Ten Count Consulting and PSM's Executive Director Shabbir Safdar explain the reasoning behind the FDA announced exemptions for connected trading partners and small dispensers as the agency approaches the full implementation of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act. 

Mexican border pharmacies have a long tradition of selling U.S. tourist fake medicine, and a recent Reuters piece shows that they're selling counterfeit Ozempic, too.

When/how did counterfeit Botox turn into a full-blown public health emergency in the United States?

You would think injunctions and expensive settlements would stop black market HIV drug schemes, especially after some schemers were jailed. You would be wrong about that.

Don't inject yourself with anything bought via social media. That goes double for receiving injections from someone who bought them on the darkweb.

Patients are being harmed by compounded semaglutide, and dosing errors appear to be the culprit. That’s what the FDA said in a letter that the agency sent out at the end of July.

Pulmosil injections, a prescription drug used for ED treatment in India has been found to be contaminated with fungus. Fungal contamination introduced via injection is particularly dangerous.

Eli Lilly issued an open letter in June about counterfeit and poorly compounded versions of Mounjaro and Zepbound, its injected diabetes and obesity treatments. Watch to learn what Lilly said about the dangers to patients, and make sure that you and you loved ones are getting safe treatments.

Are you being inundated with cheap compounded "Ozempic" and other compounded weight loss drugs? Learn what the real issues are with compounded semaglutide.

International Mail Facilities can now destroy refused devices valued at $2,500 or less instead of returning them to sender, just to have them sent back again. Counterfeit pill dies, fake diabetes test strips and other fakes now have harder time getting to US patients.