Internship?!?!

I am looking for an internship within the field of health care so I can get my BS from Brigham Young University this year. I will be finished with classes April 2010 and I will have a business minor as well.

I have been looking in different places for an inernship, if anyone has any suggestions for an internship this summer I would be very happy!

I can do an internship in anything and anywhere as long as it is health related. I would like something within the military or government. Please let me know if you know of anything.

THANKS!

Terrorist Threats

Recently, I have been doing some research for another health class. I have been searching articles and found one that was published in the Washington Post on the 25th of January. It is around 4 pages long and discusses the problem with counterfeit botox. I wrote a post about this in October of 2009. The post is called Botox Trial. You can read a little more about this problem there.  This article was written by Joby Warrick.

Here is the article link. This article that I just discovered; however, discusses the botulinum toxin and the implications that it can be used by terrorists to hurt a vast majority of people through our food supply and water supply.

These threats are real. Terrorists have sought out this toxin. In the article it states that just a paper clip size amount of this toxin can kill thousands of people. The article states “A speck of toxin smaller than a grain of sand can kill a 150-pound adult.” What might keep you at peace is this bit of information state in the article, which says “The amount of poison in a prescribed dose is so small that a determined terrorist would have to obtain hundreds of vials at $400 each to kill even a single person, bioterrorism experts say.”

I enjoyed reading this article. To learn more about counterfeit drugs and the threats I would encourage you to read more of the article.

Alli FDA warning

Looking through recent news articles I came across a counterfeit weight loss pill. This weight loss pill seems very popular. I cannot walk through Wal-Mart or other regular market type stores and not come across this pill. I think it is very pertinent that we all be aware of the FDA warning and how even pills like this can be counterfeit and potentially hazardous to our health. I found this article today called FDA Warns of Counterfeit Alii Capsules, written by James Nixon on January 20, 2010. Below is the full article.

The Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers about the dangers of counterfeit copies of the popular weight loss medication; Alli. The health body claims that large shipments of imitation drugs are being distributed and passed off as the 60-milligram capsules that are commonly found in the 120-count refill kit.

The counterfeit pills are said to contain sibutramine as opposed to Alli’s active ingredient; Orlistat. Sibutramine is said to cause severe reactions if used in combination with other medications.

Experts say that consumers began to report cases of counterfeit Alli toward the back end of last year, although they were also keen to highlight the fact the majority of the products had been sold online, and as such, there is little evidence to show that they were traded through any other medium.

To spot the fake

The imitation pill looks similar to the genuine Alli capsules, although the packaging is said to display some slight differences. It is also important to look out for the dates on the packaging. The counterfeit drugs have a date that includes the month, day and year, whilst the real packaging simply displays the month and year. Imitation Alli capsules are contained in a bottle, complete with a taller cap.

Experts also recommend that the genuine article comes with a foil seal that reads “SEALED for YOUR PROTECTION”.

Know how to differentiate

A quick search online will bring up a whole host of cheaper, seemingly great value products. However, it is important that you consider that cheaper products are by no means manufactured legitimately, nor are they necessarily comprised of safe, approved active ingredients.

It is also important to consider that whilst there are a number of rogue products on the internet, we at WeightWorld source our products from credible, licensed pharmacies. All of our treatments are of the best possible quality and all prices reflect the fact that we only use the best possible suppliers.

Malaria

Left=Fake. Real=Right

Malaria is a tremendous concern in Africa so antimalarial counterfeit drugs are one of the biggest problems they face. Each year it is estimated that malaria kills 1.5 million people, those of which are mainly children. This parasite has become resistant to most antibiotics and drugs. In 2006, there has been a recent introduction of antimalarial drugs made from the artemisinin plant and has subsequently revolutionized the healing of malaria. The drug taken from this plant to fight malaria is called artesunate. Up to 90% of artesunate that is used is fake. The problem about artesunate is that it is in high demand and very expensive. Therefore, the counterfeiting industry has taken it upon themselves to help create a drug to make it relatively inexpensive for Africans. This has helped the counterfeiting industry thrive. These forged drugs have enough of the plant to fool the laboratory tests, but do not have enough of the artesunate needed to help treat people.

International Coordination System

I found a website called Sanofi-Aventis. They are becoming a global healthcare leader, that is their vision.

Chris Viehbacher is their CEO. On their website it states they they are “Focused on patients’ needs, sanofi-aventis offers a range of essential healthcare assets, including a broad-based product portfolio and a presence worldwide.”

I found a page about counterfeit drugs. They have organized an international system on controlling the use and production and detection of counterfeit drugs. Here is a visual on the website about the corespondents and coordinators.

Click on Map for the whole picture

Identifying Counterfeits

I was searching the internet in more depth on the process of  identifying counterfeit drugs. I stumbled upon this website PharmaFocusAsia. It is talking about the benefit that the tool developed for PAT may be used in the determination of a counterfeit product. [Written by: Emil W. Ciurczak Chief Technical Officer, Cadrai Technology Group, USA]

Here are the tools:

A hand held "free-space" NIR instrument

A hand-held portable Raman instrument being used on bulk powder in plastic

Using a hand-held Raman instrument on blister packs of product

Here is another website discussing more about Hand-held Ramans. Market Profile.

Drug Imports

It seems lately there have been more and more news articles about counterfeit drugs and their problem in the United States and the around the globe. This article is talking about the drug imports and how recently they have become popular because it is cheaper. Everyone wants to save money and pharmaceuticals these days are expensive. The problem with importing drugs is that it makes them more likely to be counterfeit. That is not a chance anyone should take. It not only affects you but it affects the world. The article, Heavy Doses: O Canada Drug Imports, I found was published December 4, 2009 by Brett Chase, who writes a blog called Heavy Doses.

• Importing prescription drugs, an issue that’s vexed big pharmaceutical companies for much of this decade, is back.The idea of legalizing cheaper imported drugs from other countries gained a lot of political momentum over the decade, especially on the state level, where governors struggle with underfunded Medicaid budgets.This time it’s wrapped into the health reform debate. A Senate proposal has bipartisan support and strong backing from the AARP, the largest organization of seniors. The amendment to the Senate’s health reform bill would make it legal for Americans to buy cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries that have price controls for the cost of medicines.It’s huge issue for major drug companies like Pfizer, Inc. and Merck & Co., who count on the U.S. as their largest market for sales and profit.

  The U.S. made up $291.5 billion, or 38 percent, of the global sales for prescription drugs in 2008, according to IMS Health Inc. What’s more, the profits are far higher in the U.S. than other countries where Pfizer and others face limits on how they can price their drugs. In the U.S., the sky’s the limit. While Pfizer’s cholesterol treatment Lipitor can sell in the U.S. for $400 for 90 20-milligrams pills, that same quantity and dosage will cost a quarter of the price from mail-order pharmacies in Canada and Israel. It’s illegal to buy from these online pharmacies, though it’s unclear how well the law is policed.

  The Kaiser Foundation says U.S. prescription-drug spending increased fivefold between 1990 and 2006. More recently, an AARP-funded study out last month found prices for brand-name drugs used by many Medicare patients rose more than 9 percent in the last year. That’s up a lot considering consumer prices fell 1.3 percent overall in the U.S. during the same period.

  The AARP made the importation amendment one of its key issues, meaning it’s going to take note of any lawmakers that don’t support the idea. That presents an interesting choice for Democrats, who have buddied up with the drug industry to gain support for President Obama’s health reform. The Senate amendment is sponsored by Democrats Byron Dorgan of North Dakot and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Republicans Olympia Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona, and Charles Grassley of Iowa.

  Of course, the drug companies aren’t talking about profits. They say they’re concerned about safety. The industry’s mantra to fight importation over the years has been raising the fear of counterfeit drugs making their way into the country, threatening consumers.

  “We believe that Congress should not consider proposals that threaten patient health and safety,” Ken Johnson, senior vice president for the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, says in a statement.

Findings in US

I found this article a few days after Thanksgiving and I thought it was interesting how more than 700 counterteit packages were found in the United States! I highlighted what I thought to be very important and interesting. This article is from the Washington Post By Ylan Q. Mui a Washington Post Staff Writer. Published November 20, 2009. The article is called Crackdown Targets Counterfeit Drugs: Fake Medicines a Growing Enterprise.

• NEW YORK — In highly orchestrated raids across five continents this week, Interpol officers in Europe, drug agents in the United States and task forces from Sweden to Singapore hunted down counterfeit prescription drugs in an effort to stem a rapidly growing criminal business preying on financially pressed consumers looking for bargains.

The operation, code-named Pangea, was disclosed Friday morning in an effort to put fraudulent businesses on notice that police around the world are fighting back against what has become a $28 million industry in the United States alone.

The crackdown in the United States uncovered more than 700 alleged packages of fake or suspicious prescription drugs including Viagra, Vicodin, and Claritin, and shut down 90 alleged rogue online pharmacies. The international operation took down 72 Web sites, seized nearly 1,000 packages and found more than 167,000 suspected illicent and counterfeit pills. Some may have as much as three times more of an active ingredient than is typically prescribed; others may be placebos. Drywall material, antifreeze and yellow highway paint have been found in counterfeit pills.

The front line of the operation is deep in the bowels of a sprawling mail center in the industrial outskirts of John F. Kennedy International Airport. This week, federal agent Stephen Buzzeo, wielding a letter opener, ripped open a manila envelope lined with cardboard from a diaper package and pulled out three packages of what looked like diet pills, anxiety medicine and OxyContin, an often abused painkiller.

Hundreds of packages of potentially fake medicines were dumped into orange bins, piled on skids and stacked high around him and the half-dozen others from the alphabet soup of government agencies — ICE, CBP, FDA, DEA — hoping to intercept them before they were shipped to often unwitting consumers. Overseas, Interpol officers and task forces stormed suspected counterfeit drug warehouses and distribution centers.

“We don’t know what’s in here, actually,” Buzzeo said as he inspected the pills. “All this is shady.”

Counterfeit drugs are the latest — and potentially most dangerous — front in the long-running battle against intellectual-property crimes. Law enforcement officials said consumers typically think of counterfeited products as fake Louis Vuitton purses or Nike sneakers. Although shoes are the most common phony product, accounting for 38 percent, or $102 million, of counterfeit products seized by customs officials last year, pharmaceuticals are one of the fastest-growing categories.

In 2007, they made up about 6 percent of total seizures. Last year, they accounted for 10 percent to become the third-largest category, with an estimated market value of $28 million. Federal officials say that trend is particularly disturbing because of the health dangers that such drugs present.

“The public safety part of intellectual property has really taken off in the last couple years and become the moving force,” said John T. Morton, an assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which spearheaded the Pangea operation. “This is a huge problem.”

Though counterfeit drugs have a history as old as snake oil, the high cost of many prescription drugs has driven some consumers to hunt for cheaper alternatives on the Internet. According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, a trade group, Americans spent $254 billion on prescription drugs last year, up 1.8 percent from 2007. The long-running recession has made such costs more difficult for many consumers, experts said.

Meanwhile, the rise of Internet pharmacies has expanded the marketplace and supply chain for the drugs. One site under federal investigation that is selling a “power pack” of erectile dysfunction drugs Cialis and Viagra purports to have a warehouse in New Delhi, headquarters in Canada and a license to sell medicine in the United States through Minnesota.

However, the investigation found that the site was registered in China and its server was hosted in Russia. Its headquarters had previously been listed in Louisiana. ICE agents have placed several orders and are trying to build a case against the site.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy maintains a list of roughly 4,000 online pharmacies it says is questionable. It also certifies legitimate sellers through its Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice sites program. Seventeen have passed the test.

Online Pharmacy Ad Example

“The Internet is just the wild, wild West,” said Dr. Bryan A. Liang, vice president of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, an advocacy group.

Last fall, a new law was enacted that prohibited Internet pharmacies from dispensing prescription drugs over the Internet without a prescription and also increased some criminal penalties. Another bill sponsored by Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) this summer proposed increasing penalties for drug counterfeiters and enhancing the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to track them. It stalled in committee.

In 2004, ICE began targeting drug counterfeiters under what it called Operation Apothecary. Since then, it has launched a National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center to help root out the problem, along with other forms of counterfeiting. The crackdowns on fake drugs have expanded into a veritable global surveillance system encompassing half a dozen U.S. agencies and 24 countries for a week of intense enforcement. In the United States, task forces descended on seven major mail hubs this week, including in San Francisco, Miami and Cincinnati, and inspected 7,088 packages.

In New York, federal agents spent the week at Kennedy Airport pulling suspicious packages from China, India, Peru, Pakistan, Brazil, Turkey, Taiwan and Russia, trying to spot distribution trends and gathering leads. The leads can take months or years to track down, but officials said they need to start somewhere.

“For the criminals, at least,” said Richard Halverson, unit chief at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, “we’re telling them that everybody’s looking.”

Increases and Wrong Ingredients

Between the years 2000 and 2006 the WHO have witnessed an 800% increase of new counterfeit drug cases. The growth of these cases can be attributed to organized crime groups such as; the “Russian mafia,” Chinese triads, Mexican gangs, Colombian drug cartels, and also some terrorist groups. 60% of the cases being found are in developing countries. Counterfeit drugs are such a big problem because when the medicine, thought to be the correct one, has incorrect levels of the active ingredient which causes the weaker strains of the agent to be destroyed. Furthermore, it allows the drug-resistant strains to adapt to the active ingredient and multiply. This has been attributed to the doubling of malaria deaths in the past 20 years. The disease has become resistant to the real drugs because of the fake drugs.

What is very sad is not that the incorrect dose of the active ingredient is being put into medicine, but what is sad is the placing of an alternative incorrect chemical in the so-called medicine. In the early 1990’s there were many children in Haiti who died taking cough syrup which was made with antifreeze. The parents thought they were administering cough syrup to help the kids, but were actually giving them antifreeze.

HR 2726

Counterfeit Drug Enforcement Act of 2009 also called “Tim Fagan’s Law”. I thought since I have been posting plenty of news articles, I thought I should post the Bill, so you know what is trying to be done about this silent epidemic on the legislative level. If you go to the Videos link you can watch a video discussing the legislation of this law.

This Bill is meant to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to increase the criminal penalties for the selling of pharmaceuticals that you know are altered. It is wanting to modify the requirements for maintaining records of the supply and custody chain of the drugs, to establish recall authority concerning drugs, and for other purposes.

I found this bill on www.govtrack.us. It is the latest version they have of the bill. If you would like to read more here is the link: Counterfeit Drug Enforcement Act of 2009.

I was wondering why this bill had another name of “Tim Fagan,” so I decided to look him up. When Tim was 16-years-old he had to endure a liver transplant. (Targeting Phony Pharmaceuticals)

He would wake up in the middle of the night having spasms and he would be in pain. There were no answers to his pain. No one could figure it out.  This went on for weeks, but only on the nights he was injected with Epogen.  His mother could not stand to see her son in pain, she didn’t even like  giving him all those shots. The family got a call from their pharmacy, CVS, and was told the Epogen could be a fake.

They investigate the label. There was one thing that was different on the counterfeit label than on the real one. It was a degree symbol that was missing from the counterfeit label. No one knew how this happened.

“I was absolutely frantic as to what this counterfeit medication might have done to my son in the short-term and in the long-term,” Kevin remembers.

I was shocked to find out that our system can be infiltrated. I along with Tim Fagan’s family am shocked that this could happen in the U.S. This is one of many stories of counterfeiting in the United States. This problem is widespread over the globe.