News / Forwarders can play a part in slowing the flood of fake drugs around the world

Surging e-commerce traffic has brought the issue of counterfeit medicines and falsified pharmaceutical records back to the fore in the freight forwarding community.

Some £30m ($38m) of counterfeited medicines were seized in the UK last year; Europol seized €64m ($70m) worth across Europe in the six months to October; and Interpol seized $11m-worth in just eight days across 94 countries in 2022.

Forwarders have told The Loadstar there had been a slew of “adventurers” into the pharma scene since the pandemic.

One said: “Everyone wanted to be involved in pharmaceuticals during the pandemic. Many were good agents – and it was possible, because there was growth – an urgent need to move volumes. But with the waning of demand, major weak points have been exposed.”

Andy Morling, deputy director of criminal enforcement at the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Agency, said last year had seen “more medicine seizures than ever”.

He said: “We urge everyone to think very carefully before buying medicines they see online, and to take the necessary steps to assure themselves the seller is legitimate. Buying powerful medicines from illegitimate sellers poses a real and immediate danger.”

Based purely on instances where counterfeited medicines have been intercepted, global incidents of pharmaceutical crime climbed 10%, year on year, last year.

 The Loadstar sources pointed to the “incredible ease” with which medications could now be bought online, but warned that it was not counterfeited medicines that should worry people the most.

Lionel D’Silva, head of airfreight development at NNR Global Logistics, said the real issue now was “falsified” medicines.

He said counterfeit medicines were, essentially, copied products that infringed an intellectual property, whereas falsified medicines were those purporting to be authentic and fail to meet standards of safety, quality and efficacy.

Taking antibiotics as an example, he told The Loadstar falsified antibiotics were actually contributing to the “real threat” from anti-microbial resistance – essentially, medicine losing its power to treat.

And Mr D’Silva is far from a lone voice, doctors across low- and middle-income countries warn of an alarming spike in deaths caused by antibiotic-resistant infections in the years up to the pandemic. One report noted that, at 1.27m, the number of deaths caused this way in 2019 was more than those resulting from HIV and malaria combined.

While the causes of this spike are manifold, the rise of fake medicines has played a decisive role, and despite seizures of counterfeits by the millions, the World Health Organisation says some $200bn worth of falsified or fake medicines are being sold every year – especially with the cost of legitimate medicines often beyond the reach of those on average salaries in many countries.

“In low- and middle-income countries, small manufacturers are copying drugs made by larger manufacturers, but they often do not have the same dose, and therefore do not meet the same needs,” said Mr D’Silva.

He added: “Because they can be bought on the internet, you’re seeing the spread of these medications to the higher-income countries, increasing drug resistance in these countries too.”

Recognising that impeding the flow of fake medicines in their origin countries may be beyond the forwarding community, Mr D’Silva suggested the focus could be on preventing them getting into other countries.

“Forwarders have quality people, employed specifically to check and to double-check exactly what it is they’re moving; they can play their part before it’s too late,” he said.