KEY POINTS:
They were made in China, labelled in French and then shipped to Singapore.
They ended up in Liverpool, England, and from there were sold into Britain's state-funded health service, the NHS.
As the criminal investigation continues into how a fake consignment of Zyprexa, an anti-psychotic treatment for schizophrenia, infiltrated UK's healthcare system, evidence is mounting that sophisticated counterfeiting syndicates are increasingly targeting Britain's network of high-street pharmacies, hospitals and GP surgeries.
Figures show British border officials seized more than half-a-million counterfeit pills destined for the NHS and UK pharmacies last year, an amount equal to the quantity of counterfeit drugs found in all of Europe in 2005. So vast is the threat that confidence in the NHS could be "completely undermined", say legal experts.
More than 3 million ($7.7 million) worth of fake life-saving medicines for ailments such as heart disease and cancer were intercepted by UK Customs and border agency officials in the first 10 months of 2008. Three consignments were each larger than 100,000 pills.
In response, Customs has upgraded tackling the trade in fake medicines to "high priority", the same urgency devoted to targeting heroin and cocaine dealers. Interpol is investigating reports that profits from counterfeit drugs are funding terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, and others say such drugs could be used as a terror weapon.
Latest UK intelligence indicates that criminal gangs operating largely out of China are concentrating on supplying counterfeit "life-saving" medicines to the NHS. Profits are potentially large, with the high price of medicines in the UK ensuring that it has emerged as a prime target for criminals, says to the country's government agency that oversees the safety of medicines, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Mick Deats, a former Scotland Yard detective chief superintendent who heads the agency's intelligence and enforcement unit, said: "Criminals are branching out and we are seeing counterfeit drugs such as those to treat prostate cancer moving into the healthcare system."
Deats said evidence confirmed a sharp growth in the trade of counterfeit drugs. Major recalls of fake medicines have been ordered on 14 occasions in the last three years, compared with just one in the previous decade. Four criminal investigations are proceeding into fake treatments found within the official healthcare supply chain. Among them are 40,000 doses of Casodex, a hormone treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer, and Plavix, a blood thinner.
Authorities admit it is impossible to calculate the quantity of fake medicines entering the UK or their potential health impact.
Graham Satchwell, the former head of Scotland Yard's organised crime group, who has spent years investigating the counterfeit drugs trade, believes significant numbers of Britons may already have died as a result of fake medicines. The size of the problem is now so great that Interpol's secretary-general, Ronald Noble, recently admitted to being "shocked" at discovering that fake drugs were more deadly than terrorism. Forty years of terrorism, he said, had killed 65,000 people, compared with 200,000 in one year alone in China from counterfeit medicines.
From China, the fake medicines head west, typically passing through Dubai, then the porous borders of Europe. Here the route becomes increasingly opaque. Intelligence reports from the medicines agency show that a single consignment of drugs can change hands up to 30 times before it reaches British high-street pharmacies.
The nightmare scenario is that a batch containing lethal substances will one day penetrate the NHS. In the developing world, mass casualties are already frequent. More than 13,000 children in China were treated following release of a tainted batch of infant milk formula, while scores of youngsters died in Haiti after swallowing cough syrup containing toxic diethylene glycol.
Yet quantifying the threat to Britain is impossible, says the medicines agency. The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 1 per cent of prescriptions in the developed world a year are fake, equating to around eight million in Britain. Deats believes the true UK figure is significant, but potentially smaller. Noble recently cited research that global counterfeit drugs sales will rise to more than 75 billion by 2010, a 90 per cent increase in five years.
In the short term, the European Commission is considering new rules, such as banning the repackaging of medicines and using special seals, to stop counterfeiters. Bar codes could also come into common use too.
But as long as criminals can harvest enormous profits, British patients will remain vulnerable. "The counterfeiters target the weakest members of our societies - the young, the sick, the economically disadvantaged, and it is our obligation to take action," said Noble.
Death Toll:
65,000 - Global toll from 40 years of terrorism
200,000 - Deaths in China in one year due to counterfeit medicines
- OBSERVER
