PHARMACEUTICALS

Pharmaceutical companies are heavily regulated to ensure they are in compliance with state and federal laws all around the globe. However, there’s big money in selling fake and unauthorized drugs, and no country is immune to counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

All types of counterfeits have negative consequences, but counterfeit pharmaceuticals can quite literally cause pain, suffering, and death. Pharmaceutical companies have an interest in reducing counterfeit and unauthorized drugs to avoid legal consequences, to maintain brand reputation and to support public health.

The digital age has brought new risks for pharmaceutical companies by providing fake drug sellers with easy-to-use platforms to spread their products. From the consumer side, it has become easier to research and buy drugs online.

There are tens of thousands of online pharmacies. Some of them are legitimate, while others sell grey market and counterfeit pharmaceuticals. It’s often difficult for consumers to tell the real from the fake. Some online drug listings don’t even sell products but are phishing websites instead. Listing an in-demand medication at a discount is one way to get unsuspecting consumers to give away their personal information.

Governments and the public hold genuine manufacturers accountable for counterfeit sales of their medicines. When someone buys a counterfeit medicine, they may distrust the manufacturer in the future. Or, if they don’t know they got a fake, they might assume the legitimate drug is ineffective. Brands pay the price in damages and legal costs for the public hazard of counterfeits.

BrandShield has vast experience protecting some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies worldwide by removing RX drugs and phishing in websites, social pages, and marketplace listings, closing rogue online pharmacies, detecting phishing attempts, removing trademark infringements, and more. Click below to see how BrandShield can help your brand reduce fake and grey market pharmaceuticals.

Fake pharmaceuticals might bear visual resemblance to their genuine counterparts, but that’s where the similarities end. Counterfeit drugs cause many problems for manufacturers, including an increased burden of public hazard. Companies are often at the receiving end of expensive lawsuits for counterfeits, even though they didn’t create the counterfeits themselves. This is another reason why monitoring for fakes is important. Burdens from counterfeits include:

• Legal liability
• Increased costs to pay for lawsuits and damages
• Reduced revenue
• High legal costs from harmful counterfeits
• Decreased brand reputation in the eyes of the public

The problem of counterfeit drugs is complex and it can involve many sellers and countries. Removing counterfeits requires expertise combined with the right technology. Find out how to take them down in our article below.

Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals Increase Public Hazard Burden to Brands