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Free Trade Zones Ease Passage of Counterfeit Drugs
NY Times ^ | December 17, 2007 | WALT BOGDANICH

Posted on 12/17/2007 12:32:21 AM PST by neverdem

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Along a seemingly endless row of identical gray warehouses, a lone guard stands watch over a shuttered storage area with a peeling green and yellow sign: Euro Gulf Trading.

Three months ago, when the authorities announced that they had seized a large cache of counterfeit drugs from Euro Gulf’s warehouse deep inside a sprawling free trade zone here, they gave no hint of the raid’s global significance.

But an examination of the case reveals its link to a complex supply chain of fake drugs that ran from China through Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the Bahamas, ultimately leading to an Internet pharmacy whose American customers believed they were buying medicine from Canada, according to interviews with regulators and drug company investigators in six countries.

The seizure highlights how counterfeit drugs move in a global economy, and why they are so difficult to trace. And it underscores the role played by free trade zones — areas specially designated by a growing number of countries to encourage trade, where tariffs are waived and there is minimal regulatory oversight.

The problem is that counterfeiters use free trade zones to hide — or sanitize — a drug’s provenance, or to make, market or relabel adulterated products, according to anticounterfeiting experts.

“Free trade zones allow counterfeiters to evade the laws of the country because often times the regulations are lax in these zones,” said Ilisa Bernstein, director of pharmacy affairs at the United States Food and Drug Administration. “This is where some of the Internet sellers work,” she added.

Dubai is particularly attractive to counterfeiters because of its strategic location on the Persian Gulf between Asia, Europe and Africa. Records show that nearly a third of all counterfeit drugs confiscated in Europe last year came from...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: china; drugs; dubai; pharmaceuticals

Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times
A safety inspector looks over containers alongside the Jebel Ali Free Zone, the oldest and largest free trade zone in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Thomas Fricke for The New York Times
Andrew Strempler, a founder of the online pharmacy RxNorth, has defended his products in the face of criticism over their origins.
Tracing a Trade Route

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/world/middleeast/17freezone.html?hp

Copy and paste that URL if you want the video.

1 posted on 12/17/2007 12:32:24 AM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

I’m editing a novel I began in 1998 in which this is a serious problem. I ‘m editing because my fiction is rapidly becoming fact.


2 posted on 12/17/2007 1:25:09 AM PST by Rudder
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To: El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; Dianna; ...
WHO bird flu experts to investigate if Pakistan outbreak was spread through human contact

Stem Cells Used to Fix Breast Defects

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

3 posted on 12/17/2007 9:44:57 AM PST by neverdem (Call talk radio. We need a Constitutional Amendment for Congressional term limits. Let's Roll!)
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To: neverdem; AdmSmith; Berosus; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...
a complex supply chain of fake drugs that ran from China through Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the Bahamas, ultimately leading to an Internet pharmacy whose American customers believed they were buying medicine from Canada, according to interviews with regulators and drug company investigators in six countries.
Impossible! Everyone knows that the only reason for the high prices of prescription drugs in the US is price-gouging by Big Corporations. ;') Thanks neverdem.
4 posted on 12/17/2007 12:04:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Monday, December 10, 2007____________________https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Duchess47; jahp; LilAngel; metmom; EggsAckley; Battle Axe; SweetCaroline; Grizzled Bear; ...
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

(Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.)
5 posted on 12/18/2007 6:34:36 PM PST by JACKRUSSELL
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To: JACKRUSSELL

Thank you for all your hard work JACK.
Thanks for the ping.


6 posted on 12/18/2007 7:21:25 PM PST by sweetiepiezer (Duncan Hunter .....................a man of his word.)
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To: neverdem
The seizure highlights how counterfeit drugs move in a global economy, and why they are so difficult to trace

We can thank the globalists in our government for another mess they've got us into. I've wondered if the epidemic of autism could be caused from bad drugs that are given to the kids in vaccinations!

7 posted on 12/18/2007 7:24:03 PM PST by NRA2BFree (If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea.......does that mean that one enjoys it?)
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To: NRA2BFree
I've wondered if the epidemic of autism could be caused from bad drugs that are given to the kids in vaccinations!

It's probably the way that they count. In the past, they were probably counted as mentally retarded. Asperger's syndrome is included in autustic spectrum disorders which also includes pervasive developmental disorder, IIRC.

I believe all of our vaccines are made in the US and UK. They use either the parts of dead organisms, or attenuated, live organisms, e.g. the oral polio virus.

The stink about vaccines was because older multi-dose vials contained thimerosal, a preservative that used mercury. They have gone to unit dose vials for childhood vaccinations for many years now, maybe five or more, IIRC. I saw a TV show with identical twins. One had autism. The other didn't. There's some evidense of epigenetics being involved.

8 posted on 12/18/2007 8:11:41 PM PST by neverdem (Call talk radio. We need a Constitutional Amendment for Congressional term limits. Let's Roll!)
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