A counterfeit medication is one that has been deliberately and fraudulently formed and/or mislabeled with respect to specification and/or source to make it appear to be a genuine product. The counterfeit medicinal products include drugs with no active pharmaceutical ingredient, drugs that are super potent, and drugs with hazardous impurities.

Counterfeiting is a universal hurdle. According to the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, at the global level counterfeit sales are increasing at approximately 13 % annually; nearly twice the pace of legitimate pharmaceuticals. Currently, the potential of law enforcement agencies in order to detect and prosecute counterfeiters is negatively affected by an insufficiency of financial resources, a lack of coordination between territories and weak anti-counterfeiting laws in certain regions.

Risks associated with counterfeit medications: One of the significant risks of counterfeit medications is that patients may not bag the therapeutic outcomes anticipated from the product. For instance, a drug in order to shrink a cancerous tumor may not offer benefit to patients because it contains none, or too little, of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. Conversely, the medicinal product may contain too much active pharmaceutical ingredient or other potentially hazardous contaminants, which could also be responsible for causing harm.

How do counterfeit medications enter the Market?

In recent years, we could consider some comfort in the fact that counterfeits typically appeared in illegal or unauthorized distribution channels. Today that is no longer the case, as legitimate distribution channels in developed territories like the U.S., Canada and the U.K. have been progressively infiltrated by counterfeits.
Within the legitimate supply chain, medications are commonly sold directly by pharmaceutical firms to major authorized and genuine distributors, which then distribute them to pharmacies and hospitals where they are dispensed to patients. Although, medications may also move sideways from the authorized and legitimate distributors to middlemen or secondary wholesalers who sell medications to one another. It is at this juncture that fake or unapproved and potentially hazardous medicines from other territories can enter the particular supply chain.

The pharmaceutical products grabbed over the Internet are another utmost and growing source of counterfeit medications in industrialized territories and, to some extent, in poorer regions. This is a distinct threat to those seeking cheaper medications or unauthorized treatments, or who want to keep away from a consultation with a health specialist. While certain Internet pharmacies are genuine and legitimate, others are illegal, selling drugs without prescriptions and dispensing unapproved or counterfeit medicinal products. In a few cases, the illegal Internet pharmacies are operated internationally and sell medicinal products that have an unknown or vague origin.

Who profits from counterfeit medications?

Counterfeiting is typically linked to numerous forms of organized crime, like money laundering, medication trafficking and terrorism. The criminals have become more involved in counterfeiting as it becomes a bit lucrative; in fact, profits from counterfeits can actually be higher than those from narcotics such as heroin and cocaine.
The pharmaceutical products are attractive to criminal gangs because they are comfortably transportable and command a wide price per unit. An additional bonus for the traffickers is that the probable criminal penalties for counterfeiting of medications are often a bit less severe in comparison to narcotics trafficking, and because the law enforcement firms do not have the full resources required in order to address the problem.

What are the safest ways to purchase medications?

The best way in order to avoid counterfeit medications is to purchase prescription medications from a reputable firm or pharmacy with which you are absolutely familiar.
In case you choose to grab your medications online, see your health specialist and get a written prescription first. Consider an online pharmacy which is authentic and certified and has proper deets such as Physical Address, Contact Numbers. Don’t buy medicines from an online pharmacy that isn’t licensed in your territory, that offers to write prescriptions, or that sells medicines without prescriptions. 

What does IKRIS do to protect consumers from the dangers of counterfeiting?

IKRIS is certified by WHO-GDP, ISO & FSSAI, and believe that there is no foremost priority than ensuring that consumers have absolutely safe, useful and effective medications. We're genuinely engaged in offering Quality and Genuine Medicines with the help of our Trusted Partner across the world. 

IKRIS works with world-renowned pharmaceutical firms such as Recordati Rare diseases, Biomarin, PTC Therapeutics, etc. They assist us to provide Quality Drugs and deliver hard-to-access medicines to needy patients in order to improve their quality of life (QoL).

IKRIS has its own setup Ikris Pharma network in Belgium (Europe) which works as our sourcing office.

Ikris Pharma network  works under EU compliant SOPs having an EU GDP (Good Distribution Practice) certificate from Belgian Federal Agency for medicines and health products.

So far, IKRIS Served 50000+ patients including over 2500 patients under Named Patient Import, Supplied more than 5000 products across over 150 countries. We provide Validated and Customized solutions for cold chain products including vaccines. We have Exported Indian Generic medications to over 100+ territories including Brazil, China, Romania, Italy, Russia, South Africa, UK, Poland, Latvia, Mexico, etc.

IKRIS is working with wholesalers, the pharmacy community, regulators and law enforcement firms around the globe in order to determine how to best keep the medication distribution system safe for patients.