Jonny Dymond covered the discovery of counterfeit medicines in the UK supply chain in June and followed up on that feature with this broader piece on the rising tide of fake consumer products seized at the EU's borders.
Alison Williams was interviewed in a pharmacy in Antwerp talking about the issue of counterfeit drugs and the increasing sophistication of counterfeit packaging.
She said: "If you look at samples of counterfeit products, often they are better copies than the original article. It's very difficult for anyone to tell from looking at the product, the box, the packaging and actually distinguish between the counterfeit and not. The counterfeiters are very sophisticated. For an unsuspecting pharmacist, they would buy in good faith from their normal supply chain route and they would have no idea [they are buying fake medicines]."
About Aegate
Aegate's 'Authentication at the point of dispensing'™ service enables security technologies such as barcode and RFID to be effectively leveraged as a patient protection mechanism.
Aegate's solution combats pharmaceutical counterfeiting and fraud through a comprehensive and secure, real-time communication channel between businesses involved at both ends of the pharmaceutical supply chain: namely the manufacturers and dispensing chemists, doctors and hospitals, worldwide.
