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Increasing public use of online pharmacies, along with a new mass producer of fake medicines, have widened the global market for falsified drugs…. John Clark.. heads up Pfizer's Global Security team…has a question for doctors: do you know where your patients get their drugs from?...The official term for these types of medicines is spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit drugs….developing countries are more than aware of with estimates of the prevalence of counterfeit drugs in some parts of Africa and Asia reaching as high as 70%...it's hard to find a drug that's not being copied or falsified...Counterfeit drugs have been found in 124 countries across all continents and between 2011–14 more than 55 million doses were seized by authorities.

Montreal pharmacist who was fined a hefty $50,000 by the disciplinary council of the Quebec Order of Pharmacists for his lucrative, but unethical, practice of repackaging single doses of an expensive eye medication into three applications is now appealing the decision…John Di Genova,...has lost his license for 19 months　after the council concluded　that his repackaging of the drug Lucentis (ranibizumab),..was a violation of the professional code of pharmacists…After subdividing the single-dose…Di Genova proceeded to charge the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec for three full doses,…the Order found that Di Genova "illegally demanded money from the drug insurance board."

Texas prison officials are helping their counterparts in Virginia prepare for a scheduled execution next week by providing the state with pentobarbital, a lethal drug that corrections agencies nationwide have had difficulty obtaining…Virginia prison officials also confirmed the trade…Texas and Oklahoma are among a handful of states with laws — being challenged by death penalty opponents — that allow prison officials not to disclose where they get execution drugs…Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty organization, said the drug exchange raised concerns about government transparency.

Drug Enforcement Administration…and United States Attorney...that nine individuals have been charged by indictment with participating in a drug trafficking ring that obtained more than 80,000 oxycodone pills by way of fraudulent prescriptions….and distributed the drug in the greater New Haven area. As part of the conspiracy, members of organization obtained the personal identifying information of medical practitioners and used the information to create fraudulent prescriptions…also purchased legitimate prescriptions for oxycodone from individuals…then used individuals, or "runners," to fill the fraudulent prescriptions at pharmacies throughout Connecticut. Once a runner provided his or her personal information to a member of the organization, the runner’s information was kept on file and used to create other fraudulent prescriptions.

Thousands of Americans in communities across the country discarded more than 350 tons of unused, expired, or unwanted drugs as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day Initiative on Saturday, September 26…This past weekend, more than 3,800 federal, state and local counterparts took in more than 702,365 pounds of unused, expired or unwanted drugs at more than 5,000 collection sites....

The state is accusing the University of Washington Medical Center of not keeping critical pharmacy areas clean enough…Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission says this could affect public health, safety and welfare…"...daily cleaning of sterile compounding areas either had not occurred ... or were not documented."…It also found that, "multiple facility controls had rust, glue and dirt visibly present." And that there was "an open window to the area, high traffic in the area, and personnel who were not properly garbed."… both the director and manager of the Pharmacy - as well as the Pharmacy itself could face suspension or revocation of their licenses.

Food and Drug Administration has revoked an approval issued in March to India's Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Ltd to launch a drug (Elepsia XR, levetiracetam), for seizures, citing manufacturing quality problems at its production site…setback to SPARC, the research arm of India's largest drugmaker,…FDA issued it a "Complete Response Letter" in which it said "the compliance status of the manufacturing facility was not acceptable on the date of approval".

Two brothers were arrested today on federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges for allegedly utilizing a bogus pharmacy to obtain and distribute large quantities of prescription narcotics,..Berry Kabov, and Dalibor Kabov, 32, are charged in a 40-count indictment that also alleges they operated Global Compounding Pharmacy in West Los Angeles to illegally import large quantities of anabolic steroids… records show…Kabov brothers purchased massive quantities of drugs, including nearly 100,000 oxycodone pills, as well as tens of thousands of pills of hydrocodone…and hydromorphone...

In the largest settlement of its kind involving allegations of drug diversion…Massachusetts General Hospital has agreed to pay the United States $2.3 million to resolve allegations that lax controls enabled MGH employees to divert controlled substances for personal use…two of its nurses had stolen…nearly 16,000 pills, mostly oxycodone,…from automated dispensing machines…revealed pill count discrepancies totaling over 20,000, missing or incomplete medication inventories,..hundreds of missing drug records, all in violation of the…Controlled Substances Act...　

Incident is one of at least seven reported at area pharmacies in 24 hours, all involving suspects 18 or younger…At least seven reported robberies or attempted robberies at Indianapolis-area pharmacies in the past 24 hours involved suspects who were 18 or younger, according to police reports…In a robbery attempt at a Northeastside Walgreens, a 12-year-old boy was arrested….Indiana battles No. 1 rank in pharmacy robberies…