Second batch of fake Lipitor discovered
pharmafile | August 18, 2005 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Â
The MHRA has discovered a second batch of counterfeit Lipitor in under a month, a worrying indication of a growing market in the distribution of fake medicines in the UK.
The UK regulator has launched fresh inquiries into pharmaceutical wholesalers following its discovery of 1,500 packs of counterfeit versions of Pfizer's best-selling statin.
According to the agency, the 40mg copies had been packaged for the UK market and carried identification numbers indicating they were not for sale in the European Union.
It stressed that the copies posed no risk to British patients as they had not entered the legitimate supply chain to pharmacists.
The latest discovery was at a small UK wholesaler, which holds a licence to parallel import – the legal import of drugs from countries where the drugs are substantially cheaper than in the UK.
But the MHRA does not believe the copies were imported through a parallel trade route and is instead concentrating tracing its supply route in the UK.
The latest find follows last month's discovery of 70 packs of counterfeit Lipitor in the UK supply chain. The MHRA is currently investigating two wholesalers believed to be linked to the distribution.
Manufacturer Pfizer said it recalled 120,000 genuine packs which carried the same batch number as the 70 counterfeit packs.
Following last month's discovery, Pfizer demanded strict new anti-counterfeiting measures in the UK and across Europe, including the banning of parallel trade which it says eases the introduction of counterfeit medicines into the legitimate supply chain.
In September last year fake versions of Lilly's impotence drug Cialis and Abbott's obesity treatment Reductil were discovered in the UK supply chain.
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