Interpol Seizes $6.65 Million in Counterfeit Drugs (Update2)
By Simeon Bennett

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Interpol seized more than $6.65 million of
counterfeit medicines against malaria, HIV and tuberculosis in
Southeast Asia and made 27 arrests, disrupting the region's fake drug
trade for the second time in three years.

The haul, part of a five-month investigation called Operation Storm
across Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam, involved almost 200 raids, Aline Plancon, an officer
involved in the action, said today by e-mail from Phnom Penh,
Cambodia.

Global sales of fake drugs may reach $75 billion in 2010, an increase
of more than 90 percent from 2005, the Geneva-based World Health
Organization said on its Web site, citing the New York-based Center
for Medicine in the Public Interest.

Under Operation Storm, which ran from April 15 to Sept. 15, police
seized more than 16 million pills, including fake antibiotics for
pneumonia and child-related illnesses, Plancon said.

Asia is the world's biggest producer of all counterfeit products, the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a
report last year. About 40 percent of 1,047 arrests related to fake
drugs worldwide last year were made in Asia, according to the
Washington-based Pharmaceutical Security Institute.

Counterfeits account for as much as 30 percent of all drugs in
developing nations and less than 1 percent of all medicines in
developed nations such as the U.S., according to the WHO.

Malaria Drugs

Of particular concern to health officials are copies of a class of
malaria drugs called artemisinins that are the basis of the most
effective treatments against the disease, including Novartis AG's
Coartem.

Counterfeit artemisinin-based treatments containing small amounts of
the medicine are helping the parasite responsible for malaria to
evade authentic drugs in patients near Cambodia's border with
Thailand, a recent study showed.

As a result, genuine artemisinin-based treatments are starting to
fail, raising the risk the resistant parasite will spread, leaving
millions of people defenseless against a disease that already kills
about 2,400 people every day.

Operation Storm was a joint effort between Lyon, France- based
Interpol, the WHO and the World Customs Organization. It's the first
time police, customs, drug regulators and health authorities from
different nations have worked together to combat counterfeit
medicines, Plancon said.

It followed Operation Jupiter, which led to drug seizures and arrests
in China and Myanmar.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at
sbennett9@....

Last Updated: November 17, 2008 03:34 EST

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