Yes, scoundrels do make a living — a very good
one by all accounts — by manufacturing and selling
fake antibiotics and other medications.
Meet the Scientists
Dr. Hodel’s mission is also to empower Africans to become self-sufficient in producing
these life-saving drugs. Her organization is currently supporting the development of Diamond Pharmaceuticals in Cameroon, a company that aims to reduce the cost of drugs in
that country by packaging bulk generic drugs rather than importing the finished product.
This do-it-yourself drug packaging facility hopes to reduce the cost of needed drugs by as
much as 25 percent. The company eventually plans to move into drug manufacturing, where
it could reduce the cost by as much as 40 percent. Cheaper drugs could greatly boost needed
supplies, ultimately saving lives among populations who need the drug the most.
In addition to its efforts in Cameroon, AIDSfreeAFRICA is hoping to expand its lifesaving-mission to other African countries, including Ghana and Rwanda. Here again is Dr. Hodel:
Facundo Fernandez, Ph. D.
“On top of my wish list is that we really need to add access to essential drugs as a basic
human right to the other human rights we have. I want to share that my life has been
enriched and changed in ways that I could have never predicted. I really want to
encourage anyone and invite people to consider visiting or volunteering in Africa.”
Fighting Fake Drugs
Multiple-drug resistance is one consequence of the widespread use of antibiotics. Another
is the result of greed and deceit — the rise of drug counterfeiters. Yes, scoundrels do make
a living — a very good one by all accounts — by manufacturing and selling fake antibiotics
and other medications.
Fake drugs are a chronic problem in many developing countries in South America, Africa,
and Asia. Americans are by no means immune, with counterfeit drugs being offered for sale
on the Internet. So how big a problem is drug counterfeiting?
Paul Philp, Ph.D.
“The real answer is we honestly don’t know, because the first thing you need to do to
know if this is a growing problem is to have more measurements.... So you need to do
surveys to tell what percentage of the drugs collected are fake. So I think that at the
national level in the U.S., no it’s not growing, but that doesn’t include what you’re purchasing online. If you’re purchasing online, then all bets are off because you really don’t
know who you’re buying from.”
That was Facundo Fernandez of the Georgia Institute of Technology. This analytical chemist is developing new ways for detecting counterfeit drugs. Dr. Ferandez highlighted the
problems of drug counterfeiting in the ACS journal Industrial Engineering and Chemistry
Research. In a talk at the ACS national meeting in New Orleans this past April, he reported
on a new test that he and his colleagues developed. It can quickly detect fake Tamiflu, the
mainstay medication for preventing and treating both bird flu and common influenza.
William T. Cooper, Ph. D.
“Most people would agree that the conditions that a drug has to meet to be a good target
for counterfeiters is that (a) it has to be in fairly high demand and (b) it has to be fairly
expensive so the counterfeiting business can make a profit. Tamiflu is such a case; with
the fears of pandemic influenza, there was a lot of scare and even many states were
stockpiling Tamiflu.”
Testing with a Cell Phone
The new test relies on a method known as DESI-MS. It can analyze samples of Tamiflu in
less than a minute with very little sample preparation. The standard method of analysis can
