Last night, 60 minutes ran a 13 minute story called "The Fight Against Counterfeit Drugs," narrated by America's favorite medi-journalist Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The video is embedded below.The story is reasonably well told, with examples of counterfeit drugs from Pfizer, Lilly, and others. Dr. Gupta cites the fact that an estimated 36 million people from the U.S. have purchased medicines from "rogue" online pharmacies, many of which claim (falsely) to be from Canada. As one U.S. customs officer says, fake drugs are "a big threat and an exploding threat."
The last third of the story gets a bit muddled because it intermingles the dangers of knock-offs with the risks of contamination in the legitimate supply chain. As a result, offshore production looks more dangerous than it really is.
Nevertheless, the video is worth watching. Check it out below and let me know what you think.
Click here if you can't see the embedded video. You can also view four additional web-only videos on the CBS site.
