August 2011

Growing Spurious drug incidents in developed countries are grabbing more than their usual share of headlines. Last month, a British couple have been convicted and jailed for running a black market in veterinary drugs that was so large, it earned more money than legal sales of the same drugs — 6 million pounds (almost $10 million) just in the United Kingdom where the case was brought.

The business — lucrative enough to pay for an 11-bedroom farmhouse in France — was based on Spurious and falsely labeled drugs purchased primarily in India, imported covertly, and resold through a network of companies to farmers, stables and kennels, and veterinary practices. The drugs offered included anti-inflammatories, pain medications, sedatives and antibiotics. Which means that the case raises an important questions: How much Spurious and covertly distributed drugs are contributing to the international epidemic of antibiotic resistance — in this case, not just in human medicine, but in veterinary medicine as well. The suit against the couple and their collaborators was brought by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). After the conviction, the head of the agency’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate said:

This was a significant commercial enterprise which seriously attacked the principle of safe and effective veterinary medicines. Incorrect use of medication of unknown origin and dubious quality compromises animal health and welfare, increases the risk of harmful residues in the food chain and raises the spectre of unnecessary antibiotic resistance..

The case has fueled concerns about the quantity of Spurious drugs that are contributing to the global rise in antibiotic-resistant livestock--as well as the human consumers of that meat, according to the article.

SOURCE : Fierce Pharma