Out of concern for consumers and shareholders, Americas Watchdog formed the Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants as a way to stop global counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals and other products. The Group is now saying that the worlds next 9-11 type attack could come from pharmaceutical counterfeiters, who have a desire to disrupt industrialized countries in a significant way. Think its far fetched? The global pharmaceutical counterfeiting industry is a 100 billion dollar a year business and growing.
(PRWEB) January 24, 2008 -- Because of a worldwide epidemic of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, Americas Watchdog formed the Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants as a tangible way to protect consumers and corporate shareholders of legitimate pharmaceutical companies from counterfeit drugs (http://prweb.com/releases/2008/1/http://prweb.com/releases/2008/1/Http://GP-CC.Com). Why the sense of urgency? According to Americas Watchdog; "its pretty simple. The US, Europe, Japan or Australia are going to get hit sooner or later, with shipments of counterfeit pharmaceuticals intentionally or unintentionally designed to kill people. Its no longer a question of if, its simply a question of how soon". "We are not talking about mom & pop operations, we are talking about serious organized crime, we are talking about counterfeiting pharmaceuticals is a 100 billion dollar a year business, and we are talking about the Internet, where a consumer can literally get whatever they want".
"What we are talking about is another global disaster".
So what should consumers do? According to Americas Watchdog & its Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants, "consumers should not purchase drugs, pharmaceuticals, medicine of any type on the Internet, unless they are 100% certain it is real".
Why do consumers use the Internet to buy drugs? Americas Watchdog says consumers use the Internet to purchase prescription type drugs for the following reasons:
- They think they are saving money.
- They are embarrassed to go to a physician to get a prescription, such as in the case of ED Drugs.(erectile dysfunction drugs-a billion dollar business for counterfeiters)
- Their doctor will not prescribe it, so the consumer simply goes to the Internet.'
- The consumer cannot afford the doctor, so goes to the Internet to buy drugs.
- Drug dealers are buying knock offs & then reselling them on the black market at a profit (sleeping pills, anti anxiety pills, diet pills, etc)
Note to consumers: At least in the US; county coroners do not typically do toxicology screening on men between the ages of 40 & 65 who had a sudden heart attack. If the victim was using counterfeit heart or ED medication, the victim could have been poisoned, and no one in the US would even know it. According to Americas Watchdog, "this approach could be used by a terrorist group to field test their counterfeit poisonous drugs without anyone ever realizing what had happened".
How big of a problem is counterfeiting pharmaceuticals? In Africa, South America, Central America & Asia counterfeit pharmaceuticals may be 50% or more of the entire drug market.
What does counterfeiting cost shareholders of legitimate pharmaceutical companies? According to Americas Watchdog counterfeiting pharmaceuticals/drugs costs the top five drug makers in the world, billions each year. This also means these companies shareholders are losing profits, sales, and market share to organized crime. According to Americas Watchdog, "the shareholders of big pharmaceutical companies are being taken to the cleaners".
What can pharmaceutical companies or drug makers do, to try to stop the counterfeiting of their products? According to Americas Watchdog's Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants, "we can do the following".
- Purchase suspected counterfeit drugs in behalf of the actual drug maker, in order to identify the major retail outlets worldwide or in specific countries (such as the US, the UK, Japan, etc)
- Because most governments law enforcement agencies do not cooperate with each other, and or because there may be treaties limiting law enforcements ability to conduct an investigation on foreign soil; the Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants will go any where in the world in order to identify specific counterfeit drug retailers, wholesalers & manufactures.
- The Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants will conduct integrated buys that are intended to identify the wholesalers and the actual manufacturers in the hopes that they will be arrested, stopped by diplomatic pressure or sued in a court of law.
- Identifying major pharmaceutical/drug counterfeiters is dangerous work because organized crime operates most of the worlds major counterfeit pharmaceutical or drug operations. According to the group,"the only way to curb counterfeiting, is to expose the bad guys and try to make it much less profitable to counterfeit drugs or medications". The group will work with pharmaceutical companies to create an affordable way to identify the counterfeiters of their products, within a narrow time frame. But the group emphasizes, "the point, in time to move is now for drug makers and pharma companies".
How is the pharmaceutical company at risk from drug counterfeiters? If there is an identified mass casualty attributed to a specific knock off drug, or counterfeit pharmaceutical; consumers and politicians will be asking the drug maker what they did to protect their brand. A mass murder from a specific counterfeit drug could cause a public relations disaster in the best of worlds for the drug maker. In the worst case scenario, it could make a drug makers brand name radioactive to industrialized or global markets. In either case, the drug maker & their shareholders lose billions.
The Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants were formed as an affordable way for pharmaceutical companies to protect their customers, their shareholders and their reputations. The Counterfeiting Consultants services are also available to any other industry sector, or company that is suffering from counterfeiting.
Pharmaceutical companies or any type of business wishing to learn more about the abilities of the Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants can contact them via their web site at http://prweb.com/releases/2008/1/http://prweb.com/releases/2008/1/Http://GP-CC.Com or call them at 866-714-6466. Americas Watchdog & its Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants are all about consumer and shareholder protection and corporate fair play.
Source: PRWeb: Legal / Law
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