Showing posts with label active comparators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label active comparators. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Counterfeit Drugs in Clinical Trials?

This morning I ran across a bit of a coffee-spitter: in the middle of an otherwise opaquely underinformative press release fromTranscelerate Biopharma about the launch of their
Counterfeits flooding
the market? Really?
"Comparator Network" - which will perhaps streamline member companies' ability to obtain drugs from each other for clinical trials using active comparator arms -  the CEO of the consortium, Dalvir Gill, drops a rather remarkable quote:

"Locating and accessing these comparators at the right time, in the right quantities and with the accompanying drug stability and regulatory information we need, doesn't always happen efficiently. This is further complicated by infiltration of the commercial drug supply chain by counterfeit drugs.  With the activation of our Comparator Network the participating TransCelerate companies will be able to source these comparator drugs directly from each other, be able to secure supply when they need it in the quantities they need, have access to drug data and totally mitigate the risk of counterfeit drugs in that clinical trial."

[Emphasis added.]

I have to admit to being a little floored by the idea that there is any sort of risk, in industry-run clinical trials, of counterfeit medication "infiltration".

Does Gill know something that the rest of us don't? Or is this just an awkward slap at perceived competition – innuendo against the companies that currently manage clinical trial comparator drug supply? Or an attempt at depicting the trials of non-Transcelerate members as risky and prone to fraud?

Either way, it could use some explaining. Thinking I might have missed something, I did do a quick literature search to see if I could come across any references to counterfeits in trials. Google Scholar and PubMed produced no useful results, but Wikipedia helpfully noted in its entry on counterfeit medications:

Counterfeit drugs have even been known to have been involved in clinical drug trials.[citation needed]


And on that point, I think we can agree: Citation needed. I hope the folks at Transcelerate will oblige.