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news.Fake drugs valued at EUR10.5bn are sold in Europe every year, and Germany and Italy are found to be the key consumers of these drugs, reported a research funded by Pfizer, whose products Viagra and Lipitor are among the key targets for fakers.
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The ‘Cracking Counterfeit Europe’ study sought out information from 14,000 people in 14 countries with regard to any purchases of prescription-only medicines made without a prescription. The results showed that average of 21% had made the kind of purchases, the figure surging to 38% in Germany and Italy.
EU industry commissioner noted that 34 million fake pills were forfeited at customs points during a course of two months in 2009. According to European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM), over and above the smuggling, as many as two-thirds of the drugs bought online were fake or of inferior quality.
According to Reuters, the contribution of weight-loss medicines is nearly half of all online drug transactions, followed by prescription treatments for pills for erectile dysfunction, smoking cessation drugs, flu, and painkillers. Around 1 in 5 people in the continent have bought medicines online.
Jim Thomson, chairman of the EAASM, told Reuters: “Counterfeit medicine is costing the industry a huge amount of money but it’s costing healthcare providers a lot more.”