Pharma Fraud

Pharma fraud is a term to describe several illegal activities involving the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of pharmaceuticals. [ The phrase was proposed by Ellen 't Hoen of MSF, during the 61st World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva, in response to controversies over the use of the term "counterfeiting" in draft WHA resolutions, to describe activities that often involved health risks from unsafe, substandard or fake medicines. The use of the term counterfeit was problematic and inaccurate to describe all of these activities, and health experts were seeking a new term to collectively describe these harmful activities.]

For example, Pharma Fraud refers to:
* Trade involving counterfeit drugs: the practice of falsely claiming to be an authorized product of another firm, including but not limited to the use of another firm's mark to deceive the public. [ See, for example, [http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/A61/A61_16-en.pdf Counterfeit medical products] , Report by the Secretariat, A61/16, 7 April 2008. ]
* Deliberately manufacturing and marketing products that do not contain the required active ingredients or not contain the right amount of active ingredient. ["Fake Malaria Drugs Made In China: Tracking Down The Threat To Global Health," "ScienceDaily", Feb. 13, 2008. Newton PN, Fernandez FM, Plancon A, Mildenhall DC, Green MD,et al. (2008) A collaborative epidemiologica investigation into the criminal fake artesunate trade in South East Asia. "PLoS Med" 5(2): e32.]
* Packaging of drugs that make false claims regarding medical properties, including but not limited to the active medical ingredients, the date of expiration of products, or the methods of storage. [Claire Panosian Dunavan, [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.heparin09may09,0,356719.story "Drug safety crisis hits home"] , "Baltimore Sun", May 9, 2008.]
* Marketing of products using false claims regarding the efficacy of the product which will lead to the irrational use [Laing, R.O., "Rational Drug Use: An Unsolved Problem," "Tropical Doctor" 1990, 20, 101-103. [http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB118/B118_6-en.pdf Rational use of medicines: progress in implementing the WHO medicines strategy,] Report by the Secretariat, EB118/6, May 2006. A group that monitors this issue in developing countries is the [http://www.inrud.org/ International Network for the Rational Use of Medicines] .] of medicines or deliberately failing to provide information about safety concerns of the product.
* Deliberate suppression of data, including evidence from clinical trials, [Ed Silverman, "2000 study by Merck showed Vioxx risk Results not given to FDA," "Star-Ledger", July 03, 2005. Morse Mehrbanm, "Failure to disclose adverse health consequences of a product constitutes health fraud," [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3879/is_199807/ai_n8786081 NCRHI Newsletter] , Jul/Aug 1998.] that reveal adverse effects of the medicine.

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