Tonight 60 Minutes ran a story on the $75 billion a year counterfeit drug racket that makes up 26% of the $289 billion U.S. market in pharmaceuticals.
The difficult fight against counterfeit drugs"So, you're talking about a very low risk, very high reward, potentially tons of money," Gupta remarked.
"Yeah. Absolutely," Kibble said. "When you think about that some of these pills can be manufactured you know, for 40 cents and sold for $18 or $20, I mean, just think of that profit potential. I mean, it's insane."
So the real problem is people are counterfeiting pills these pills. It would never occur to people who have been trained as reporters and producers that the real problem here is that these pills sell for inflated prices of $18 or $20 EACH.
Thirty six million Americans are estimated to have bought their medicines from these sites, many searching for quality drugs at a better price. Some sites pretend to be from Canada because Canada is known for safe, inexpensive medicines.Kibble caught one Israeli counterfeiter on a hidden camera admitting that very scheme.
"These are all your Internet Web sites. Is that really from Canada?" an undercover agent asked.
"Noooo!" the counterfeiter replied, laughing.
More and more Americans are becoming aware of the hazards of buying prescription drugs on the internet, but even with that knowledge many will be compelled to to resort to fly by night internet sites simply because they have no choice. They can't afford to by their prescriptions from more reliable suppliers, put food on the table and pay the rent. Something has to give. That created the opportunity for counterfeiters to ridiculous amounts of money selling fake drugs to Americans who were at the end of their rope.