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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:32 am
Time: 1:32 am
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3 results foundAuthor: Przyswa, Eric Title: Counterfeit Medicines and Criminal Organisations Summary: Counterfeit Medicines are a major threat that is spreading dangerously across the globe and the International Institute of Research Against Counterfeit Medicines (IRACM) has decided to present a study report to decipher the relationship between organized crime and medicine counterfeiting. Today, every country, every person can come into contact with counterfeit medicines. The risk of taking counterfeit medicines "involuntarily" is increased exponentially for any potential patient of the "global village". This risk can become a real danger to individual lives, but also a global threat to public health. The IRACM wishes to alert the public by publishing this report to raise awareness among governments and citizens and help consumer-patients to make careful choices, whether on the internet or at markets in developing countries where drugs are sold on stalls at lower prices. The purpose of such a report is a hot topic as medicine counterfeiting issues have escalated to worrying heights with the growth of international trade and the Internet. This problem now generates major public health issues on an international scale. As for criminal organizations, they are often perceived simplistically in public debate and this research on this new subject seeks to attempt to characterize the structures that exist. The study focuses not only on Western countries but also on Russian and especially Chinese aspects, often regarded as strategic. This novel research report includes the best international academic sources and seeks to identify the logic behind the most significant criminal strategies rather than provide a hypothetical exhaustive list of organizations involved in such illegal trafficking. Many criminal organizations Based on our research, it is clear that criminal organizations are involved in medicine counterfeiting and three types of organization can be identified: Small-sized organizations (two to five people) often created by opportunistic individuals motivated by short-term gains. These organizations offer specific products at attractive prices. Medium-sized transnational organizations whose criminal profile varies: these may be structures stemming from organized crime (Wuppertal case1), opportunistic businessmen using sophisticated techniques to manage their organization (Arnaud B. case2) or people more directly connected to the pharmaceutical industry (Gillespie case). Large-scale and transnational organizations as seen in two significant cases: - The RxNorth case involving a Canadian distributor which, in parallel with its business, organized a complex system to import counterfeit medicines made in China into the United States, transiting them through Hong Kong, the Middle East, the UK and the Bahamas. - Another, even more complex example: a so-called "Jordanian-Syrian" network created in 2003 during the U.S. invasion of Iraq and which, through a succession of opportunities, evolved into multiple subnetworks in the region (Jordan, Palestinian territories, Egypt, Syria), then moved to the West with a counterfeit cancer drug whose network transited through several countries (Egypt, Turkey, Switzerland, Great Britain) before finally reaching the U.S. market. This case, which has received little media coverage, is thought to be the largest criminal network of medicine counterfeiting still active. Chinese organized crime has a very strategic role and it is important to distinguish Chinese criminal cases involving the Western market (the case of Kevin Xu, a businessman who specialized in exports), from cases mostly involving the local market where the criminals often have connections to the healthcare sector. Lastly, there are foreign structures that create local companies that serve to build transnational networks based in this leading region for the manufacture of counterfeit medicines. On the Internet there are two types of criminal structures. The first category includes opportunistic online networks set up on an ad hoc basis by being grafted onto "real" trade with the end consumer in the distribution phase. The second category of organizations is dedicated exclusively to online distribution with globalized affiliation techniques and aggressive advertising on search engines or through spam. The most significant case of a cybercrime organization in recent years involves the Russian Glavmed and SpamIt affiliation programs. The affiliates of these two networks benefited from "prefabricated" online pharmacies and a dozen SpamIt affiliates earned over $1 million in commission on their website. Vast criminal organizations Generally speaking, certain analytical limitations in deciphering these organizations have been identified and differentiate our analyses from most sources on the subject. Despite the proven involvement of Italian criminal organizations in the counterfeiting of luxury goods and the healthcare sector, their presence in the organization of counterfeit medicine trafficking is difficult to prove. However, the report raises the theoretical possibility of the Mafia's involvement in certain strategic locations such as harbours. As for the Chinese Triads, analysing their involvement has proven to be difficult, as research in mainland China is complex. In short, we must be cautious regarding the presence of traditional criminal organizations in our field of study. The involvement of terrorist organizations is also difficult to prove, despite many reports seeking to document money laundering linked to counterfeit medicine trafficking. But the explanations given are often related to broader geopolitical issues, raising doubts over the objectivity of such analyses (Hezbollah for example). However, the involvement of the IRA in the organization of a vast counterfeit veterinary drug trafficking network in the early 90s between Northern Ireland and Florida has been clearly proven. In sum, the report identifies these criminal organizations and their activities and characterizes them in several ways: - Fragmented crime through better access to illegal activities. The "massification" of printing, production and distribution techniques has clearly facilitated such developments. - Criminal organizations often operate based on a "structural holes" approach, seeking to maximize the systemic flaws in the supply chain or on a broader scale (free trade zones, tax havens, servers hosted in "protected" areas, etc.). - On a large scale, these organizations are characterized by a hybrid network structure, where licit operators can cooperate with illicit ones or be directly involved in such criminal trafficking. - In terms of timelines, it is important to distinguish between organizations likely to generate a major risk over a relatively short period of time, and that need to be dismantled as quickly as possible, and large hybrid organizations whose total elimination can take years. - To our knowledge, there are no sustainable large-scale transnational criminal organizations that combine trafficking on the Internet and trafficking in the "real" world. - Paradoxically, networks on the Internet often seem to have a more structured and consistent organization than organizations involved in medicine counterfeiting in the "real" world, which are more difficult to observe. - The counterfeit medicines distributed are no longer limited to "convenience" drugs but also include major diabetes and cancer treatments. Details: Paris: Institut de Recherche Anti-Contrefacon de Medicaments, 2013. 129p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 9, 2015 at: http://www.iracm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Contrefacon-de-Medicaments-et-Organisations-Criminelles-EN.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.iracm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Contrefacon-de-Medicaments-et-Organisations-Criminelles-EN.pdf Shelf Number: 135203 Keywords: Counterfeit GoodsCounterfeit MedicinesCybercrimeIllegal GoodsOrganized CrimePharmaceuticals |
Author: Di Nicola, Andrea Title: Fakecare: Developing expertise against the online trade of fake medicines by producing and disseminating knowledge, counterstrategies and tools across the EU Summary: This project seeks to develop expertise in the online trade of counterfeit medicines, and develop strategies for the detection of illegal online pharmacies. The aim of the project is to develop expertise in tackling the trade of fake medicine through the Internet. It will do this by: developing in-depth knowledge of this criminal market, through innovative methods producing counterstrategies and tools (including an ICT tool) to disrupt such a trade, based on this knowledge disseminating knowledge, counterstrategies and tools to relevant stakeholders across the EU. Details: Trento, Italy: eCrime, University of Trento, 2015. 122p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 2, 2017 at: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/eCrime_Research_Reports_02.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/eCrime_Research_Reports_02.pdf Shelf Number: 141262 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit MedicinesFake MedicinesMedicinesPharmaceuticals |
Author: Hall, Alexandra Title: Search and Stop: Guidelines to tackle the online trade of falsified medicinal products Summary: In Europe, the online market in falsified medicinal products in expanding at a rapid rate, Tackling the online trade of falsified medicinal products is a challenge for law enforcement agencies. This report offers a series of guidelines which aims at producing and disseminating knowledge, counterstrategies and tools across the EU to solve and mitigate this online trade. Details: Trento, Italy: eCrime, University of Trento, 2015. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 2, 2017 at: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/FAKECARE-Guidelines_for_LEAs.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/FAKECARE-Guidelines_for_LEAs.pdf Shelf Number: 144430 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit MedicineFake MedicinesMedicinePharmaceuticals |