Yesterday the FDA alerted healthcare providers that a cancer drug illegally imported and distributed to medical practices by a licensed pharmaceutical distributor going by the names “Medical Device King” and “Pharmalogical”, and Taranis Medical, is counterfeit. The FDA alert can be found here. Once again, the drug is labeled as Altuzan, a version of bevacizumab which contains the same active ingredient as Avastin. Here is AP story about it. Here is the WSJ article about it.
Avastin was the subject of a counterfeit importation crime about a year ago, (see “How Counterfeit Avastin Penetrated the U.S. Supply Chain“).
It is illegal to import drugs that are not approved by the FDA for sale and use in the U.S., and so even if the drug had not turned out to be a counterfeit version, this would have still been a crime. It makes me wonder if the reason this case came to light was because the drug name on the package was clearly not approved here. What if the counterfeit drug had been Continue reading InBrief: Illegally Imported Drugs Found To Be Counterfeit…Again
