Category Archives: Pharmaceutical Labels

Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals

Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are a significant health concern worldwide. The Internet is a principle outlet for sales of counterfeit medications, which offer significant savings over drug store prescriptions. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than half of the medications obtained from illegal websites that do not publish their physical addresses are counterfeit.

However, the problem is even more pervasive. Organized counterfeit pharmaceutical rings target impoverished people in emergent economies whose lives depend on medications that they cannot afford. Hot spots for distribution of illegal medicines include India, Africa and Latin America.

WHO identifies illicit medications as spurious/falsely-labeled/falsified/counterfeit (SFFC) substances. SFFC products range from therapeutics for life-threatening diseases to over-the-counter remedies such as antihistamines. They may contain no active ingredients or too many. In either case, they can be life-threatening so the pharmaceutical label must be thoroughly inspected.

The Dangers Associated with Illegitimate Medicines

According to Interpol, “criminal networks are attracted by the huge profits to be made through pharmaceutical crime.” However, this huge illicit gain means significant losses to legitimate drug companies in terms of reputation, revenue, and return on their investment in research and development.… Read the rest of High-Tech Pharmaceutical Labeling Best Hope for Combating Counterfeit Market

A recent poll reveals that 60 percent of people using prescription drugs have made errors in taking medications. An estimated 100,000 people in the US die every year because of medication errors, and those mistakes are the fourth leading cause of death in the country (msnbc.com). These deaths are preventable, and better pharmaceutical labels may be one of the best methods of prevention.

People who take several different medications at various times, in various doses, on empty stomachs or with meals may have a difficult time remembering all the directions involved. And, when several people in one household take prescription medications, it is easy for someone to take another person’s prescription by mistake—the orange and white bottles all look the same! If pharmaceutical labels were easier to read, people could avoid making potentially dangerous errors when they take medications.

Studies of pharmaceutical labels have shown that the pharmacy name was usually the most prominent item on many medication labels, and information for the pharmacists’ use was sometimes printed with bold print, highlighting and color, but instructions and warnings for the patients were printed with black ink in smaller font sizes. It should be a simple matter to reverse this practice by enlarging the print for the most important information on the pharmaceutical labels and decreasing it for less vital details like the pharmacy name. Additionally, most pill bottles are round and narrow, so patients must keep rotating the bottle to read the label.… Read the rest of Improving Pharmaceutical Labels to Avoid Deaths | 2 Comments